Friday’s second free practice session for the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix was under way at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and we were expecting a busy start to the session, with rain in the area once more.
More than a third of dry running time in the opening session was lost because a red flag that was followed by some heavy rain, so every minute here was crucial. The official word was that there was a 40 per cent risk of rain during this session. We already had 14 cars on track in the opening couple of minutes, including Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Ocon, who both experienced technical issues in FP1.
As was the case in the first session, Max Verstappen went fastest early on: the Dutchman put in a 1:47.699. Carlos Sainz momentarily went off track at Turn 13, but it didn’t stop him from going fastest. However, Max Verstappen immediately responded by going a further 0.4s quicker. A few moments later, Carlos went off track again, this time at Turn 6: no major issue for the Spaniard, who was now more than 0.5s back from Max Verstappen after the Red Bull made another slight improvement.
It looked as though Mercedes would be praying for warmer conditions at the Spa-Francorchamps weekend: Lewis Hamilton was two seconds off the pace down in 10th, with George Russell almost a full second further back in 16th. Russell came on team radio to report that he was struggling to get “any temperature” into his tyres.
It was time for soft tyre running, and Max Verstappen remained a dominant force: the world championship leader did a 1:45.507, which put him 0.8s clear of Charles Leclerc in second. Things were still looking pretty bleak for Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton 1.3s off Verstappen in sixth, and George Russell a couple of tenths further back in seventh.
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With 15 minutes to go, we had confirmation from Sky Sports in the pit lane that Sergio Perez had a DRS issue and a hydraulic leak. As a result, Red Bull putt a new rear wing on his RB18 car, with the Mexican who then returned to the track. But soon after, ponchos appeared in the stands as the rain begans to fall once more. There was therefore no chance of the Ferrari F1-75 cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to challenge Max Verstappen’s leading time during the last 15 minutes at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. As Martin Brundle pointed out for Sky Sports, the cars were no longer going flat out through Eau Rouge.
During the last few minutes we saw several cars go off track, largely at Turn 6, as they struggled to cope with the greasy conditions. Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher was the latest to have a moment – this time at Turn 7 – but he managed to keep it going in the gravel and no major damage was suffered by his Haas car.
After near misses for several drivers, the majority of the pit lane appeared to be playing it safe and called it a day: a few cars were heading back out on track in the final minutes, potentially for some practice starts. And indeed the stewards noticed a possible practice start infringement by Max Verstappen, but he is of course already starting from somewhere near the front of the grid, just like Charles Leclerc, after receiving a penalty for taking new engine parts.
Max Verstappen was therefore quickest in second practice for the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, ending the session nearly one second clear of Charles Leclerc. FP1 pace-setter Carlos Sainz could only manage fifth place, 1.142s slower than Verstappen, with both Lando Norris (third) and Lance Stroll (fourth) nudging ahead of the Spaniard. The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were sixth and eighth, respectively – Alpine’s Fernando Alonso the meat in the sandwich.
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