Verstappen leads Leclerc by eight-tenths in second practice

Max Verstappen was comfortably fastest of all in second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, leading title rival Charles Leclerc by eight tenths of a second.

Lando Norris was third-quickest for McLaren. However all the top three drivers in this session will take grid penalties for exceeding their power unit parts allocation.

The second and final practice session for the race at Spa-Francorchamps was again affected by rain in the later stages, with Verstappen setting the fastest time on the soft tyres midway through the session to end Friday fastest of all.

After earlier rain had effectively ended first practice early, the track was fortunately dry and ready for action when the second and final hour of the day’s running began. With a high risk of rain later in the hour, teams wasted no team in getting their cars out on the track.

Carlos Sainz Jnr was less than impressed on his first flying lap of the session when he came across the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel exiting Stevelot. Verstappen set the early pace with a 1’46.850 on the medium tyres, ahead of the two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc.

The Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell took to the track on the hard tyres, but Hamilton appeared to struggle for grip, running off track at Les Combes twice on his run. Russell did go third fastest, but was over a second slower than Verstappen. Lance Stroll used the soft tyres to jump to fourth in the Aston Martin, ahead of Hamilton.

In the second half of the session, teams focused on longer runs with race pace in mind. Pierre Gasly slid off the circuit at Bruxelles and into the newly installed gravel trap, but was able to recover out and continue. Verstappen used the soft tyres and pushed to go even quicker than before with a 1’45.507, the fastest time of the day and eight tenths of a second faster than Leclerc.

With just over ten minutes of running remaining, rain began to fall once again over the circuit. Leclerc, Norris, Fernando Alonso, Zhou Guanyu, Alexander Albon and Mick Schumacher all ran off the track at Les Combes as the track turned slippery, but fortunately all drivers managed to get back on track without any serious concerns.

Aston Martin sent both drivers out on wet tyres but were joined by most of the field in the final minutes as drivers took the opportunity to carry out practice starts at the end of the session. Verstappen attempted a practice start on the exit of the pit lane, but launched as the Alpine of Alonso was alongside him. The stewards noted the incident.

With no one able to improve because of the conditions, Verstappen ended the session quickest of all, eight tenths ahead of Leclerc. Norris was third fastest in the McLaren, ahead of Stroll, Sainz, Hamilton and Alonso. Russell, Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez completed the top ten, after a rear wing fault limited Perez’s running later in the session.

2022 Belgian Grand Prix second practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB18	1’45.507		20
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	F1-75	1’46.369	0.862	21
3	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’46.589	1.082	17
4	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’46.635	1.128	16
5	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	F1-75	1’46.649	1.142	20
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W13	1’46.893	1.386	18
7	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’46.975	1.468	19
8	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W13	1’47.042	1.535	22
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL36	1’47.255	1.748	18
10	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB18	1’47.346	1.839	15
11	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’47.520	2.013	15
12	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’47.617	2.110	21
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’47.658	2.151	16
14	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT03	1’47.782	2.275	19
15	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR22	1’47.867	2.360	19
16	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A522	1’47.944	2.437	21
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’48.208	2.701	19
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C42	1’48.419	2.912	21
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	FW44	1’48.612	3.105	14
20	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	VF-22	1’49.941	4.434	23

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