Leclerc leads second F1 practice from Norris

The Monegasque sat pretty by 0.2s over his McLaren chaser, with Sainz the same interval again back in third place.

But both Scuderia cars ran ahead of Max Verstappen, the Dutch champion enduring a difficult afternoon as he was comparatively off the pace and complaining of car oscillations.

Leclerc led the way thanks to his earlier qualifying simulation, which might take on greater significance should qualifying not go ahead amid forecasts of a downpour on Saturday.

Running a dry-weather set-up in the 34-degree Celsius conditions, the Ferrari driver peaked with a 1m18.445s to sit pretty by two tenths over McLaren’s Norris.

As per FP1, it had been Sebastian Vettel to venture out first on track ahead of Lance Stroll and the updated Haas of Kevin Magnussen, as Valtteri Bottas returned for Alfa Romeo after missing the earlier session to make room for Robert Kubica.

Sainz was the first driver to post something resembling a representative time as he took his medium-tyre shod F1-75 to a 1m20.487s after five minutes but was swiftly deposed by Alonso.

Verstappen was then the first to dip into the 1m19s, the Dutch ace dropping the pace to a 1m19.854s before Leclerc immediately responded with a 1m18s flier.

Leclerc, who sits 63 points adrift of Verstappen after crashing out of the lead of the French GP last weekend, climbed to the top courtesy of a 1m18.911s to find seventh tenths over the RB18.

That would keep Leclerc on top for the opening medium-tyre stints. And despite being fastest in all three sectors, he left a little on the table as he missed his ideal lap by 0.12s.

Sergio Perez managed to pull to third, half a second in arrears of his teammate as he pipped Fernando Alonso.

Sainz did then improve to second, whittling his time down to a 1m19.548s to find a tenth over Verstappen.

However, at this stage, he would still sit some 0.6s in arrears of his stablemate, the Spaniard not helping matters by being scruffy and running wide at Turns 5 and 7.

All bar three cars returned to the pits to create a lull in the session before the switch to soft tyres, which again Leclerc grabbed by the scruff of the neck.

Sainz would improve a little to a 1m19.392s while Verstappen spent a hefty part of the session on the sidelines while Red Bull paid particular attention to the suspension set-up on his car.

With one RB18 out the way, Norris bolted to the top of the times on his soft-tyre flier.

His ran the MCL36 very wide out of the final corner to kick up a cloud of dust as…