Kimi Antonelli vaulted to the top of the timesheet in Formula 1’s second practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix, just under two tenths clear of Lando Norris in a twice red-flagged session.
The first red flag was innocuous enough and called out for gravel on the circuit; the second was produced by Pierre Gasly’s crash in the final 15 minutes of the session, which interrupted the teams’ long runs. The Alpine driver lost the rear out of Les Fagnes, then clipped the outside wall with the rear of the car to dispense with his rear wing.
Antonelli had secured a 1m45.944s on his opening soft-tyre run to move ahead of the Red Bulls, and his lap was ultimately unbeaten by the subsequent attempts by others on the C4 compound. These early exploratory runs on mediums, employed to explore the changes made in the break, were interrupted by the first red flag to clear the gravel on the road at Stavelot.
The Italian led the way after the initial flurry of runs, setting a 1m46.911s to beat Max Verstappen’s FP1 benchmark and was just 0.011s clear of Isack Hadjar’s opening FP2 run on the medium tyre.
After a five-minute delay, the teams took the opportunity to engage in their qualifying simulations. Hadjar then went quickest on his first soft-tyre run, posting a 1m46.714s to sit top of the pile; the Frenchman will take a hefty grid penalty for Sunday’s race with a series of powertrain changes outside of his allocation.
Verstappen then found three tenths on his team-mate to grab a 1m46.416s, which briefly put the Dutchman on top.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
On his own set of softs Antonelli then posted a 1m45.944s, almost half a second clear of the four-time champion, after reeling off a pair of purple sectors at the start of the lap. This was a significant benchmark for the others to follow, and Hamilton only ended up splitting the Red Bulls with his soft-tyre opener.
Norris got close to Antonelli’s effort, shading the championship leader by 0.190s with his first effort, but was unable to join him in the 1m45s as McLaren showed its hand with solid pace in the middle sector.
Verstappen’s effort was ultimately good enough for third ahead of Hamilton, who originally saw his lap deleted – but this appeared to be a mix-up on the race control board and it was ultimately reinstated.
Hadjar was ahead of Oscar Piastri, who missed the first 20 minutes as his car was being repaired following a suspected hydraulics issue in FP1. Piastri was the last driver within a second of Antonelli’s time, with Franco Colapinto seventh with a solid lap. Gasly’s best lap, pre-crash, was two tenths down on his team-mate – but this was deleted for track limits.
George Russell was in a lowly eighth, 1.2s behind his team-mate, as the two Racing Bulls drivers completed the top 10 – Arvid Lindblad, sporting the new roll-hoop update, from Liam Lawson.
Silverstone winner Charles Leclerc was only 11th in the timing boards, having had his 1m47.0s – a lap good enough for seventh – chalked off for cutting the corner at Raidillon.
F1 Belgian GP – FP2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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