Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Verstappen on top, Ricciardo at a standstill, Hamilton lurking

After a light rain that disrupted the F3, the second free practice session started on a dry track. The session was dominated by Verstappen, who set the best lap at 1:43.744 ahead of a surprising Ricciardo at 1:43.792, who did not finish the session, and Hamilton in 1:43.840 taking the 3rd position.

While the Haas cars are still on jacks during the engine change for both single-seaters, Giovinazzi is the first driver on track and sets his first fast lap in 1:49.716 on medium tires. He, like the American team, did not set any lap times during the first free practice session. Räikkönen beat his teammate shortly after with a 1:46.402 on hard tires.

Problem for Norris during his pit exit lap, forced to drive slowly to return to his garage. After 20 minutes of the session, the track got busy: Albon took the fastest time with 1:45.212 ahead of the two Renaults and the two Alfa Tauris. Bottas beat Albon’s time with 1:44.658, only 0.02s faster than Stroll and 0.04s ahead of Perez, all on medium tires. Verstappen takes 1st place with a lap of 1:44.354 while the Ferraris are 11th and 15th at +1.6s. Norris has resolved his engine issue and ranks 7th ahead of Ocon and Ricciardo.

Hamilton secures 6th place on hard tires by using the DAS to heat up his tires. The cool temperatures in the Ardennes highlight the usefulness of the Mercedes system in getting the tires into the right temperature window.

At mid-session, the drivers switched to soft tires to find performance. Hamilton clocked the fastest time at 1:43.840 ahead of Bottas. Albon slipped in between the two Mercedes, as did Perez. Ocon took 5th place ahead of Verstappen and Gasly. On his second flying lap, the Dutch driver took the lead with a 1:43.744. A great lap from Ricciardo who took second place at +0.048s ahead of Hamilton at +0.096s. With 40 minutes remaining, the top 8 drivers are within 0.5 seconds of each other.

Ferrari has not improved and remains in the second half of the table at the level of the Williams. The Haas cars came out 30 minutes before the end of the session to set their first timed lap of the weekend with a 1:46.242 for Magnussen.

And 1:45.834 for Grosjean. Great performances from the Alfa Romeo team, placing 13th and 14th.

A yellow flag was issued for Ricciardo, who will not finish the second free practice session, being forced to stop on the straight after Raidillon due to a hydraulic pressure failure. The virtual safety car was deployed for a short moment to secure the single-seater.

A red flag was waved with 10 minutes remaining in the session. An advertising board came loose at the exit of the first corner, making the track impassable. A very short interruption forced the drivers to return to the pits.

The end of the session will not see any improvement in lap times, with the top half of the table running on medium or hard tires while the second half continues to seek performance with the soft compounds. The standings will not change until the end of the second free practice session.

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