Esteban Ocon fastest ahead of São Paulo sprint as Logan Sargeant moves closer to F1 seat

São Paulo Grand Prix

Ocon fastest ahead of São Paulo sprint as Sargeant moves closer to F1 seat

One of those near-pointless sessions

Ian Parkes

Saturday 12 November 2022 17:31 Updated: 18:06

Esteban Ocon emerged quickest from the second practice session for the São Paulo Grand Prix and Logan Sargeant slowest albeit a step closer to a confirmed seat in F1 next season.

It was another of those unusual FP2 sessions, with qualifying completed on Friday and the sprint race to come.

The focus, naturally, was on tyres and fuel-load evaluation ahead of Sunday's grand prix, particularly in high temperatures, with the track hitting 51 degrees Celsius, with times of no consequence.

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This was underlined by the fact Alpine driver Ocon's leading time of one minute 14.604secs was almost four seconds off the pace of the quickest lap set on Friday from Red Bull's Max Verstappen in Q2 of 1:10.881s.

As for Sargeant, who replaced Alex Albon in a Williams for this session, he completed over 100 kilometres, securing another point in his bid to obtain a super licence.

It means the 21-year-old American now has to finish in the top five of this year's F2 drivers' standings to guarantee himself a licence and a seat in F1 with the Grove-based team. He is currently with the final round in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

Sargeant drove for 28 laps overall of the 4.309km track, propping up the timesheet, 1.876s behind Ocon.

Behind Ocon further up the field, Red Bull's Sergio Perez was second quickest, 0.184s adrift, with the Mexican followed by Mercedes' George Russell and Fernando Alonso in the second Alpine.

Verstappen, who starts on the front row for the sprint alongside Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, was 0.494s behind Ocon, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton 0.039s adrift in sixth.

Overall, the entire field completed a considerable number of laps, led by Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel with 44.

São Paulo Grand Prix second practice results

1. Esteban Ocon [Alpine] 1:14.604s

2. Sergio Perez [Red Bull] +0.184s

3. George Russell [Mercedes] +0.312s

4. Fernando Alonso [Alpine] +0.445s

5. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] +0.494s

6. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] +0.533s

7. Pierre Gasly [AlphaTauri] +1.032s

8. Mick Schumacher [Haas] +1.080s

9. Kevin Magnussen [Haas] +1.211s

10. Lando Norris [McLaren] +1.247s