Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2, Verstappen sixth in second practice

The Briton set the early benchmark in the session on soft tyres and subsequently cranked up the dial with a 1m30.374s to put distance between himself and the rest of the field.

Russell slotted in behind to sit second, despite enduring a difficult opening to the session and could not match the first lap Hamilton had set as he lacked traction in the opening sector.

On a different run after taking another set of soft tyres, Russell moved up the order to set a 1m30.580s and move ahead of then-runner-up Carlos Sainz, who was subsequently displaced by a lap from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

Oscar Piastri was fifth fastest thanks to his session-best middle sector, which ensured Verstappen could only end the session in sixth – just 0.477s off Hamilton’s best.

As the second practice session was at 6pm, at the same time of day that Saturday’s race will take place, the conditions were more representative of those expected in the key sessions across the rest of the weekend.

That said, temperatures were uncharacteristically low at an ambient 17.2 degrees celsius, with a crosswind across the straight.

The field was split on the opening runs between the medium and soft compounds, and the traditional frontrunners opted for the red-walled Pirelli rubber to kick off their sessions.

Sainz was first to take the times into the 1m31s, but was swiftly beaten by Sergio Perez’s 1m31.629s amid the early flurry of times.

Charles Leclerc then posted a 1m31.578s to go top, but this was comprehensively beaten by Hamilton’s opening gambit: a 1m30.751s. Alonso then split the top two with a 1m31.035s.

Max Verstappen’s opening lap was half a second away from Hamilton’s benchmark and, although he later improved on the same set of tyres, he could not make any concerted inroads into the seven-time champion’s time.

Verstappen’s ultimate best, a 1m30.851, would not have been enough to beat Hamilton’s initial soft-tyre time.

These soft-tyre laps rounded out the first half-hour, with the second dedicated towards longer runs in preparation for the race – a vital component of the teams’ preparation given that FP3 will not be a representative session.

The order was set with no further improvements,, and Nico Hulkenberg had fired his Haas into seventh place with a time just 0.03s shy of Verstappen, and 0.007s clear of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.

Leclerc and Perez completed the…