After he had also led Friday afternoon’s FP1 action, Leclerc continued as the frontrunner through the early stages of the day’s second 60-minute session when the cars were split across the medium and hard tyres.
When they switched the softs for the mid-session qualifying simulation runs, Leclerc set the best time benchmark at 1m15.969s, before using a second set of the red-walled rubber to blast to a session-topping 1m15.906s.
McLaren might have headed Ferrari as Lando Norris’s sole soft tyre flier started with a pair of purple sectors before he ran too wide out of the two downhill Rivazza corners.
When Norris dipped his right-side wheels into the gravel on the exit of the second turn, he stamped on the brakes and abandoned his lap in the pits from which he only returned later on to complete the high-fuel running that typically concludes FP2 action.
Oscar Piastri was able to get to 0.192s back from Leclerc on his qualifying simulation effort, with Yuki Tsunoda starring for RB as he slotted into third.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell improved with their second softs laps to move into fourth and fifth, bumping Carlos Sainz down in the other Ferrari as he had had an off-track moment at the Variante Alta on his second flying lap.
Around all of this, Verstappen posted a first softs flier that put him 0.541s on Leclerc’s eventual best time, the world champion again struggling significantly in the middle sector, where he had been off-track in FP2.
When he and team-mate Sergio Perez – eighth behind Verstappen’s final position of seventh – attempted a second qualifying simulation run, Verstappen came across Hamilton touring slowly through the Villeneuve chicane and angrily aborted his run.
When Verstappen cut across the Mercedes’ bow to show his fury – Hamilton offering a hand up in apology from his cockpit – Perez was bearing down on the pair on the approach to Tosa and so he too backed off.
Verstappen then later had an off-track moment through the gravel between the Rivazzas as he completed his high-fuel running.
Norris’s lack of completed softs run meant he finished down in 12th, behind Daniel Ricciardo in the other RB.
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