F1 Grand Prix practice results: Hamilton fastest in Turkey

Hamilton was fastest in both FP1 and FP2, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc respectively.

Turkish Grand Prix FP1 results: Hamilton fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	26	1'24.178			228.287
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	24	1'24.603	0.425	0.425	227.140
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	27	1'24.654	0.476	0.051	227.004
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	28	1'24.842	0.664	0.188	226.501
5	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	25	1'24.860	0.682	0.018	226.452
6	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	30	1'24.909	0.731	0.049	226.322
7	Lando Norris	McLaren	26	1'25.347	1.169	0.438	225.160
8	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	30	1'25.382	1.204	0.035	225.068
9	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	26	1'25.383	1.205	0.001	225.065
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	24	1'25.459	1.281	0.076	224.865
11	George Russell	Williams	25	1'25.685	1.507	0.226	224.272
12	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	26	1'25.750	1.572	0.065	224.102
13	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	26	1'25.810	1.632	0.060	223.945
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	24	1'25.813	1.635	0.003	223.938
15	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	28	1'25.863	1.685	0.050	223.807
16	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	24	1'25.933	1.755	0.070	223.625
17	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	29	1'26.361	2.183	0.428	222.517
18	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	28	1'26.424	2.246	0.063	222.354
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	25	1'26.636	2.458	0.212	221.810
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	28	1'27.019	2.841	0.383	220.834
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 1?

Due to his 10-place engine-change grid penalty, Hamilton focused on soft-tyre running, working his way down to 1m24.511s as the track rubbered-in. Hamilton then put on a fresh set of softs and produced 1m24.250 and then, after another spell in the pits, he set the session-best 1m24.178s. 

On his soft-tyred run, Verstappen struggled with his Red Bull’s balance – reporting “no front end” and suggested it was the tyres – and was almost half a second down on 1m24.603s. Leclerc was third, just 0.051s down on Verstappen and clearly revelling in his fresh power unit. 

Valtteri Bottas was fourth in the second Mercedes, 0.6s off his teammate’s pace, ahead of Carlos Sainz (who will also take an engine change penalty on Sunday) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine), who remarkably set his 1m24.909s on hards after blowing his soft-tyre run at Turn 9. 

McLaren’s Lando Norris was seventh from Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull).

Turkish Grand Prix FP2 results: Hamilton fastest from Leclerc

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	30	1'23.804			229.306
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	29	1'23.970	0.166	0.166	228.853
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	31	1'24.214	0.410	0.244	228.190
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	28	1'24.373	0.569	0.159	227.760
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	27	1'24.439	0.635	0.066	227.582
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	24	1'24.525	0.721	0.086	227.350
7	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	21	1'24.660	0.856	0.135	226.987
8	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	26	1'24.672	0.868	0.012	226.955
9	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	32	1'24.756	0.952	0.084	226.730
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	29	1'24.796	0.992	0.040	226.623
11	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	30	1'24.882	1.078	0.086	226.394
12	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	34	1'24.903	1.099	0.021	226.338
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	31	1'25.020	1.216	0.117	226.026
14	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	23	1'25.060	1.256	0.040	225.920
15	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	27	1'25.143	1.339	0.083	225.700
16	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	30	1'25.229	1.425	0.086	225.472
17	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	30	1'25.307	1.503	0.078	225.266
18	George Russell	Williams	29	1'25.358	1.554	0.051	225.131
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	26	1'25.480	1.676	0.122	224.810
20	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	25	1'25.698	1.894	0.218	224.238
View full results

What happened in Free Practice 2?

In FP2, Leclerc set the medium-tyre pace, beating Hamilton’s morning time with 1m24.102s, as Lewis complained his medium-compound fronts were “not working” – he was 0.099s slower after the first runs.

Teams switched to soft-tyre running just before half distance, with Hamilton setting the pace at 1m23.840s. Verstappen’s struggles continued and he only lapped within nine-tenths of his title rival.

Hamilton made a marginal improvement on his second lap, finding pace in the middle sector, lowering his P1 time to 1m23.804s. Leclerc had a big moment on his time attack on softs at Turn 9 but improved at his second attempt to 1m23.970s, 0.166s off Hamilton’s best.

Bottas was fourth tenths off the pace in third, ahead of Perez, Verstappen, Norris and Alonso. Ocon was eighth (but suffered an issue that prevented him from selecting first gear for his practice start at the end of the session), Gasly and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

An understeer-plagued Gasly spun at Turn 6, while Nicholas Latifi rotated his Williams at Turn 9 early on, and again near the end, but he recovered to outpace teammate George Russell. Nikita Mazepin suffered a high-speed half-spin at Turn 8 towards the end of the session.