All you need to know about second Belgian GP F1 practice

Max Verstappen set an untouchable pace to end second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix comfortably ahead of his 2022 Formula 1 title rival Charles Leclerc.

Key moments

– Verstappen 0.862s clear of title rival Leclerc
– Norris and Stroll, next up,
– Second Red Bull of Perez 10th after wing change
– Rain arrives again at end of session

Red Bull’s drivers’ championship leader was fastest for the vast majority of the 60-minute FP2 session, both at first on the medium tyres then on the qualifying simulation runs in the middle of the hour.

He ended up with a best time of 1m45.507s, which was easily the fastest lap of the weekend so far and left him with a 0.862-second buffer back to the Ferrari of Leclerc.

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Despite valiant attempts from drivers thereafter to complete their long-run programmes, those were cut short by the interference of rain that, while lighter than in FP1, still prompted a number of moments at Radillion and Les Combes in particular.

Lando Norris was less than a quarter of a second further back from Leclerc in third for McLaren, with Lance Stroll repeating his strong FP1 performance by setting the fourth-fastest time – a mere 0.046s behind Norris – in his Aston Martin.

Those two were involved in a strange on-track moment, where Norris – with a high closing speed – opted to drive around the outside of Stroll at the Bus Stop chicane, using the runoff in doing so such was the extent to which the Aston Martin was already over to the left-hand side.

Carlos Sainz, likely in with a shot at a second grand prix victory on Sunday considering both Leclerc and Verstappen have significant grid penalties, was fifth fastest but had a scruffy session.

His FP2 began with his Ferrari catching the second Aston of Sebastian Vettel out of Stavelot, then involved a moment over the gravel exiting Fagnes – Sainz described this as “a bit of rallying” – on a lap that nevertheless briefly put him fastest, and later on when the rain arrived he had an off at Turn 9.

Lewis Hamilton was sixth in the best of the Mercedes, two tenths and two places clear of team-mate George Russell.

The pair both experimented with hard tyres early on in FP2 before moving up the times when they switched to the softer compound, with Russell struggling more on the white-walled tyres he had at the beginning of the session – complaining at one point that “I just can’t get any temperature in the tyres”.

They were split by Fernando Alonso, who was a second clear of team-mate Esteban Ocon – the second Alpine ending the session only 16th.

Daniel Ricciardo was ninth in the second McLaren, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull.

Perez spent more than 25 minutes in the pits while his team changed the rear wing on his car. Though he was able to set a time on the soft tyres, this came as the first spots of rain began to arrive.

Practice 2 Results