Verstappen fastest in FP2 despite late crash

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As in the previous FP1 session on Friday at Spa, FP2 started in wet conditions thanks to rain between the two hour-long practice sessions, although there was already a clear dry streak when Bottas drove a small group of racers out on the intermediate vehicles at the open parking lane .

Bottas, Kimi Raikkonen, Pierre Gasly, Sebastian Vettel and Lando Norris completed early stabilization laps on the entrances before pitting to switch to spots – led by McLaren driver Norris.

He duly set his first lap in time for the session – 1m48.219s – on solid composite tires, which Norris beat in the next round of his career as he scored 1m47.138s.

With the rest of the track drying up quickly, the rest of the group appeared right on the spots and times quickly slipped – with Esteban Ocon running faster after the 15-minute mark thanks to the 1m46.638s, also on the solid tyres.

This was quickly overtaken by Nicholas Latifi’s 1m 46.198secs on the medium tyres, before Bottas usurped the Williams as he put in 1m 44.513secs – Mercedes was also running on yellow-walled rubber.

Verstappen scored behind Bottas before being overtaken by Hamilton, who ended up 0.031sec behind his teammate at this point, with the world champion now running a much smaller rear wing compared to the setup he used in FP1.

Halfway through, the Mercedes drivers were among the first sprinters to install the soft tires to complete the qualifying simulation effort, but oddly enough, neither Bottas nor Hamilton improved their best on the softer rubber – although the latter posted the fastest time at the time in the middle sector.

When Verstappen appeared on red-walled rubber a few minutes later, the Red Bull driver flew into the lead with his 1m44.472s – beating Hamilton’s fastest time in the midfield before losing some ground to his best in the final third. .

But it was enough to give Verstappen a 0.041sec lead to Bottas’ best time over the middle, with Hamilton trailing 0.072sec in the time he also clocked over the intermediaries.

Fernando Alonso set the fourth fastest time for Albin, ahead of Gasly and Lance Stroll.

Esteban Ocon ended up in seventh place after having a hard spin approaching the 40-minute mark when he lost the back of the Alps to come out on the Fanges chicane and traveled sideways a long distance on the track to Stavelot’s first right before stopping at the wrong road. Then it recovers to the pits without any damage other than a bunch of soft materials.

Vettel, Norris and Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten after qualifying sim efforts, with another Red Bull sprinter scoring his best FP2 time on the quarterback.

As more rain stopped, the teams were able to switch to the usual elevated fuel trails late in FP2 to gather information on the longer race distances, but this part of the session was severely disrupted.

First, with just over 15 minutes left, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who finished 18th in the final standings, crashed into the final segment of Les Combes – having lost the back of his car when he came out of the second right.

Leclerc’s attempts to catch the accident resulted in him putting him on the rails within the sequence and he slid into the hurdles between Turns 6 and 7, knocking the left front of his car out and bringing out the red flags.

After a short delay to get the Ferrari back, the session resumed with 10 minutes to go, and most of the field lined up at the end of the waiting lane.

Pitching to complete more high-fuel runs but this was cut short when Verstappen crashed with three minutes left – also in the final part of Les Combes, Turn 7, albeit out of the corner compared to where Leclerc crashed.

Verstappen lost the back of his RB16B at too high a speed as he ran through the fast right hand and sprinted back into the rails outside, damaging both right wheels.

With so little time left and gravel strewn on the track as a result of the accident, the FP2 didn’t restart.

consequences

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