Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the surprisingly fastest runner in Free Practice 2 for the Belgian Grand Prix – though not as surprising as Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo who took P2, 0.048s behind Verstappen and just ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
In a dry session, Verstappen stopped the clocks at 1m 43.744s around the 7.004km Spa-Francorchamps track, but a fine effort from Ricciardo saw him in the second slot, while Hamilton took third, 0.096s behind Verstappen, the six-time champion who had made a slight mistake at the last chicane on his fastest push-lap.
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However, any joy Ricciardo may have felt about the split between Verstappen and Hamilton was later tempered by a problem that forced him to park his RS20 on the Kemmel Straight with 20 minutes of the session to pass, his Renault suffered a loss of hydraulic pressure,
That incident brought out a Virtual Safety Car, while there was also a short session stop 10 minutes from the end after an advertising panel unfolded itself, and brought out a red flag.
|
1 Max Step away VER Red Bull Racing |
1: 43,744 |
|
2 Daniel Ricciardo RIC Renault |
+ 0.048s |
|
3 Lewis Hamilton HAM Mercedes |
+ 0.096s |
|
4 Alexander Albon ALB Red Bull Racing |
+ 0.390s |
|
5 Sergio Perez MAY Racing Point |
+ 0.393s |
Alex Albon could not match the pace of his teammate in the second Red Bull, but made a decent attempt to go fourth, 0.390s from Verstappen, and just 0.003s at the Racing Point of Sergio Perez in fifth. Valtteri Bottas was sixth for Mercedes after leading FP1, while Lando Norris overcame an early power unit, making sure to take seventh for McLaren.
The top 10 finished off the sister Renault and McLaren of Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz, while Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri was 10th.
Meanwhile, Lance Stroll of Racing Point was 11th – his best lap set on mediums, he had not improved his time on his soft tire lap – while Daniil Kvyat’s second AlphaTauri was 12th.
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Lowering the magazines, it was a humiliating session for Ferrari, who after picking up their pace wrestling in FP1, FP2 finished with Charles Leclerc in 15th and Sebastian Vettel in 17th, with Leclerc nearly 1.7s of pace on the job where he pitched last year – while Vettel was close to two seconds.
AS THE CHILD – Second practice in Belgium
After their failure to set up an FP1 this morning after problems with non-units hit both cars, Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen came out of the pit for the first time in 55 minutes, with both having engine changes, before surprisingly ended up P19 and P20 – but apparently happy with the track time.
Like Antonio Giovinazzi, who did not set a time this morning after experiencing a technical problem. He took a P13, one place for teammate and four times Spa winner Kimi Raikkonen – Alfa Romeo finished the session as the fastest Ferrari-powered team in FP2 …
George Russell’s Williams found himself in the early position of splitting the Ferraris in P16, with Nicholas Latifi narrowly behind Vettel in P18.
So it looks like a Belgian battle is waiting for us – and with rain pouring around the track and watching Red Bull pace, qualifying will be a fascinating match.
