Verstappen leads Leclerc by eight-tenths in second practice · RaceFans

Max Verstappen was comfortably fastest of all in second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, leading title rival Charles Leclerc by eight tenths of a second.

Lando Norris was third-quickest for McLaren. However all the top three drivers in this session will take grid penalties for exceeding their power unit parts allocation.

The second and final practice session for the race at Spa-Francorchamps was again affected by rain in the later stages, with Verstappen setting the fastest time on the soft tyres midway through the session to end Friday fastest of all.

After earlier rain had effectively ended first practice early, the track was fortunately dry and ready for action when the second and final hour of the day’s running began. With a high risk of rain later in the hour, teams wasted no team in getting their cars out on the track.

Carlos Sainz Jnr was less than impressed on his first flying lap of the session when he came across the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel exiting Stevelot. Verstappen set the early pace with a 1’46.850 on the medium tyres, ahead of the two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc.

The Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell took to the track on the hard tyres, but Hamilton appeared to struggle for grip, running off track at Les Combes twice on his run. Russell did go third fastest, but was over a second slower than Verstappen. Lance Stroll used the soft tyres to jump to fourth in the Aston Martin, ahead of Hamilton.

In the second half of the session, teams focused on longer runs with race pace in mind. Pierre Gasly slid off the circuit at Bruxelles and into the newly installed gravel trap, but was able to recover out and continue. Verstappen used the soft tyres and pushed to go even quicker than before with a 1’45.507, the fastest time of the day and eight tenths of a second faster than Leclerc.

With just over ten minutes of running remaining, rain began to fall once again over the circuit. Leclerc, Norris, Fernando Alonso, Zhou Guanyu, Alexander Albon and Mick Schumacher all ran off the track at Les Combes as the track turned slippery, but fortunately all drivers managed to get back on track without any serious concerns.

Aston Martin sent both drivers out on wet tyres but were joined by most of the field in the final minutes as drivers took the opportunity to carry out practice starts at the end of the session. Verstappen attempted a practice start on the exit of the pit lane, but launched as the Alpine of Alonso was alongside…