2021 Belgian GP, Ferrari second practice report: Carlos P11, Charles P18. Ferrari second practice report.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ended Friday practice with a crash after setting the fastest time ahead of both Mercedes drivers. He was 0.039 seconds quicker than Valtteri Bottas, with Hamilton third.

With some rain in between the two free practice sessions at the Spa-Francorchamps, it meant that the track was much damper in the start of FP2 for the Belgian Grand Prix. Just like in FP1, drivers gradually turned to soft tyre runs to evaluate the qualifying pace and medium/hard tyre runs to gather data regarding the pace for Sunday’s race.

It was a rather difficult afternoon for Scuderia Ferrari, as the Italian side did not manage to enter the top ten. Carlos Sainz finished P11, with a personal best lap time of 1:45.517, more than one second behind the best lap time of the session, that of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Unfortunately for Charles Leclerc, his session ended with 15 minutes to go, due to a crash in turn 6: the Monegasque driver lost the rear of his SF21 car and went into the barriers when pushing on soft tyres. That was certainly his Friday over, with the left front of his car damaged. Luckily Charles was ok. However, the incident hampered the Maranello team’s race simulation plans. He carried a little too much speed into the chicane, managed to negotiate the initial right-hander but the car ran a little wide through the following left and he lost control as he tried to moved to the other side of the track for the quick Malmedy right-hander that follows.

Behind the top three, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon.

Results from the second practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix, Round 12 of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship.