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Maserati MSG Racing’s Maximilian Guenther finished FP2 in second, with the young German driver keen to replicate his victory last time out in Jakarta. Jaguar TCS Racing’s Sam Bird had a late start to the session, but ended up third when the chequered flag was waved.
FP2 got underway at 10:30 local time, with a track temperature of 29°C and plenty of fans in the sold out grandstands. FP1’s fastest man yesterday, NEOM McLaren’s Rene Rast continued his quick pace and sat at the top of the timesheets early on, with his teammate Jake Hughes joining him in second eight minutes into the session.
Rast would eventfully finish the 30 minute event in fourth, with DS PENSKE of Jean-Eric Vergne rounding up the top five.
Vergne had an unusual off at Turn 1 during the session, as he bailed on the corner and instead decided to venture down the escape road. He later did the same, kicking up dust in the DS PENSKE, when finding the limits of the 3.221km circuit. The two-time champ also had an off-track moment in first practice yesterday evening when he missed the corner at Turn 11.
He wasn’t alone as in the session the NIO 333 of Dan Ticktum had an identical incident and went on the grass, with Robin Frijns treating his ABT CUPRA like a lawnmower across the runoff.
Championship contender Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti) had to take evasive action to avoid hitting the NIO of Sergio Sette Camara who sat on the racing line at Turn 11 with a few minutes left to go. He was given a black and white flag for impeding Dennis.
At the end of the session, three of the championship contenders sat in the bottom four with Dennis in 19th, Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy in 20th and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans in 21st out of 22 drivers.