Alonso tops rain-hit second practice from Leclerc

Verstappen led the pack out of the pits at the start of FP2, but it was Carlos Sainz that set the first time to set the first place benchmark, the Spaniard putting in a 1m20.378s on the medium tyres to establish the first-place benchmark.

A few minutes later, Verstappen beat this with a 1m19.759s while also running the mediums, before Sainz shot back ahead with his second lap to complete a 1m19.695s.

But this only stood as the best time for a few moments as Alonso’s first flier on the mediums resulted in a 1m18.887s for the Spaniard, which then stood as the leading lap for nearly all the session.

This was because shortly before the first quarter of the one-hour session had been completed, rain began to hit Albert Park – most noticeably at the first corners where Verstappen had an early off catching snap oversteer running the rapid right and immediately following Turn 2 left.

Just before conditions really worsened, Leclerc slotted into second behind Alonso, with the Aston driver and Lando Norris sliding deep at Turn 1 as fans in the grandstands put on hats and coats to shield themselves from the weather.

In Norris’s case, his off had him shooting deep into the grass runoff behind Turns 1/2, then skating through the gravel trap before continuing on his way.

Lance Stroll tapped the wall approaching the super-fast Turn 9 left as a few runners remained on the track in the slippery conditions, after which all the cars returned to the pits in a lengthy lull in the action.

Around the halfway mark, the Ferrari drivers went back on out the softs, with George Russell following them out on the intermediates, but all three pitted after one lap as the red cars struggled on slicks and the track was not wet enough for the inters on the Mercedes.

Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen then ventured out on the inters, but again did not complete timed laps and little action took place.

Approaching the final 20 minutes, a gaggle of cars did take back to the track, including Verstappen, to complete additional running on the inters, plus conduct practice starts at the end of the pitlane to gather data should Sunday’s race end up starting in similar conditions.

The wet running meant none of the top times was troubled to the end of the session, with the most notable action Stroll and Russell nearly dropping their cars and spearing into the inside wall just past Turn 3, with Stroll also sliding off and briefly skating through the gravel at the…