Belgium – Free Practice 2: Red Bull warns its rivals

The sky is almost entirely blue around 2 PM at Spa-Francorchamps. The temperature is a nice 21 degrees in the air with the track at 27 degrees. Much better conditions than this morning’s grayer weather.

Unlike this morning’s session, there is quite a bit of activity on the track right from the first few minutes. As a direct consequence, lap times fall quickly and the ranking keeps changing constantly. However, it’s worth noting that it is Nico Hülkenberg who crosses the line first with a time.

After 10 minutes, it is Mark Webber who leads the pack with a time of 1:51.317 ahead of Fernando Alonso, the fastest this morning, and Felipe Massa. Rosberg, Button, Pérez, and Hamilton have not yet completed a flying lap this afternoon.

The first third of this second session goes smoothly. Everyone is working to complete the scheduled program to best prepare for the continuation of the festivities. At Ferrari, Felipe Massa complains about the tires, while on the Lotus side, Kimi Räikkönen is asked to slow down to monitor fuel consumption.

After 30 minutes, Webber remains at the top of the timesheets ahead of his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. Alonso and Hamilton complete the provisional top 5 for the afternoon. At Lotus, Räikkönen is 11th and Romain Grosjean 15th, which is slightly better than this morning but not necessarily outstanding.

In the second part of the session, the E21s raise the tone and are in 3rd place (Grosjean) and 6th place (Räikkönen). 35 minutes before the end, Vettel took over from his teammate, clocking in at 1:49.331. Webber is second, Grosjean third by 8 tenths. It’s time for long stints in preparation for Sunday’s race.

With 20 minutes remaining in the session, Sebastian Vettel returns to his pit slowly; a puncture on the rear right. A few minutes later, the yellow flags are waved by the marshals following Giedo Van der Garde’s big off-track excursion at the link turn before Blanchimont. The Dutch driver is too optimistic on the curbs and loses control of his Caterham.

At Red Bull, it feels like the end of the session. Vettel gets out of his RB9 while the mechanics disassemble it for inspection.

At the end of the 90 minutes, Vettel retains the lead in the second practice session ahead of Webber and Grosjean. The gaps between the three men haven’t changed. The Lotus still concedes 0.8 seconds to the leading Red Bull.

Free Practice 2 Results of the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix.

From our special correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps