Despite rumours of rain in the air we saw another dry practice session at Spa.
It was a successful session for championship leader Kimi Antonelli while his teammate and championship rival, George Russell, struggled to keep up.
Green Light
As the green light showed at the end of the pit lane the Mercedes were first out while Oscar Piastri remained out of the car with work still being completed after a hydraulic leak at the end of FP1.
Not an ideal start to the session for the Australian after a tough first half of the season.
Everyone else also headed out on the medium tyres.
First Runs
As the first representative lap times came in we saw Antonelli quickest with a 1:46.911 with the Red Bull teammates less than a tenth behind him in P2 and P3.
Leclerc followed with a 1:47.5 while Hamilton was a second behind due to a wide moment at the final chicane.
Red Flag
After a couple wide and unsettled moments from a few drivers such as Hamilton, Verstappen and Norris, we saw a red flag due to excessive gravel on the track possibly due to a wide moment for Max Verstappen.
Time For Qualifying Simulations
After a 6 minute delay the cars were released back to the track with both Red Bulls and Antonelli being the first to fit the soft tyre for qualifying simulations.
Antonelli set a scorching lap time just under half a second quicker than the Red Bulls.
Piastri finally joined the session at this point with the medium tyres fitted and 40 minutes remaining.
Struggles Continue For Russell
As Antonelli is setting the timing screens alight with each lap, Russell struggled to keep up.
The Brit found himself more than a second behind his leading teammate on both long runs and qualifying runs.
He commented on the radio that he had no grip and struggled to heat up the tyres but couldn’t understand the massive gap to his teammate.
Big Crash For Pierre Gasly
A big crash for Pierre Gasly as he had just fitted the medium tyres and was on his first push lap on those tyres.
The driver went wide at turn 14 and clipped the barrier, which sent him into a spin, ripping off the rear wing and spraying debris all over the track.
The red flag was flown once again with 15 minutes to go in the session.
Back Underway
The green flag was waved once again with two minutes to go in the session allowing drivers to complete their practice starts.
As the chequered flag flew to end FP2 Antonelli led with a 1:45.944 with Lando Norris 0.200s behind in P2 and Verstappen 0.500s behind in P3.
Image Credit – Formula 1 X