Belgium – Free Practice 2: Charles Leclerc confirms Ferrari’s good form

Unlike Free Practice 1, as soon as the session began, both Haas cars and George Russell’s Williams left the pits. The first championship top driver to take to the track is Sebastian Vettel. He eclipses the lap times set earlier in the session on his first lap.

After 30 minutes, Charles Leclerc held the fastest lap with 1’45’377. Only 17 thousandths behind was Max Verstappen, who, despite being six-tenths slower in the first sector, managed to find a lot of pace on the rest of the track. The local hero suffered from issues throughout the session, particularly with his brakes, specifically his engine braking.

Fifteen minutes before the end of the session, Lance Stroll encountered a problem with his RP19 that forced him to get out of his car. The Canadian was not the only one to experience reliability issues. In fact, the other pink panther’s session ended prematurely after its engine went up in smoke. Immobilized on the track near Rivage, the virtual safety car and then a red flag prematurely ended the session.

First in the session, Charles Leclerc was ahead of Vettel by 6 tenths in qualifying pace. A significant gap but one that the German made up in race pace. Driver number 5 is prioritizing settings this weekend for Sunday rather than Saturday.

A bit like in 2018, Racing Point really likes the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Sergio Perez, in terms of lap pace, was faster than the Dutchman’s Red Bull while Lance Stroll was ahead of Alexander Albon by a few thousandths.

By contrast, the McLarens seem less comfortable, and Carlos Sainz could do no better than 11th. He’s three-tenths ahead of his garage neighbor, Lando Norris. This is surprising because the papaya car has often shown great speed on straights. A slight lack of pace is due to the characteristics of the MCL34, which prefers slow corners to fast ones.

Results of Free Practice 2 – 2019 Belgian Grand Prix: