Verstappen fastest from Ricciardo in Belgian GP practice two

Max Verstappen topped the timesheets for Red Bull in second practice at Spa-Francorchamps, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault and Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes.

Verstappen set a time of 1m43.744s to lead the way in the session, only the third time in the season so far that he’s been fastest in practice.

Ricciardo had been enjoying a positive session and set a time that remained fast enough to stay second, but he was radioed to pull his car over due to a loss of hydraulic pressure, which subsequently caused a virtual safety car in the final half an hour as the Renault was recovered from its parking spot on the Kemmel Straight.

Hamilton was third for Mercedes, ahead of Alex Albon in the second Red Bull and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.

Valtteri Bottas ended the session in sixth, with McLaren’s Lando Norris seventh ahead of Esteban Ocon.

Norris’ McLaren team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr was ninth, while AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel again languished down the order, this time in 15th and 17th respectively.

After failing to run at all in the morning’s first free practice session, both Haases managed to get out in the afternoon – ending the session 19th and 20th.

Romain Grosjean switched to the fresher engine he had introduced at the previous race while Kevin Magnussen took on a new combustion engine, turbocharger and MGU-H.

In the final 10 minutes of the session, advertising boards on the exit of La Source – which had been damaged earlier in the day during Formula 2 qualifying – came loose and littered the track, causing a brief red flag period.

Practice 2 Results