LECLERC SETS THE PACE IN FP2 AT THE UNITED STATES GP

Leclerc shaded Antonelli by four-hundredths to top Friday running in Austin, with Verstappen third and both title-chasing McLarens outside the top six. The Ferrari driver posted a 1:35.291 on softs during quali sims, barely holding off the Mercedes rookie as track limits turned the session into a demolition derby of deleted laps. Hamilton, Russell, and Hadjar all had times scrubbed, while Norris fought snap oversteer and Piastri griped about a car that wouldn't cooperate.

The American storyline stayed bleak. Cadillac's debut season hit another low—Perez twenty-first, Bottas nineteenth, both marooned at the back on home soil in Austin. Haas fared better with Bearman tenth and Ocon fourteenth, but neither sniffed the sharp end. Hadjar called his RB22 "disgusting" as deg set in, a sentiment McLaren might share after Norris and Piastri finished seventh and eighth despite sitting second and fourth in the championship. Ferrari's long-run pace will decide whether Leclerc's Friday speed translates when it counts Saturday at four.