Lando Norris led McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in a closely fought one-two FP2 finish in Belgium ahead of Max Verstappen.
Norris used a second set of soft tires to rocket to the top spot after most other drivers had already completed their single-lap qualifying simulation runs, going purple in the final two sectors on the way to a headline time of 1m42.260s. That edged teammate Piastri by 0.215s, the Australian having topped the timesheet with his first set of softs despite dipping into the gravel exiting Malmedy on the run down to Bruxelles.
The Australian radioed his team warning of possible floor damage, but it wouldn’t be the last time he would flirt with the stones, running wide on his long run at Speakers corner.
Max Verstappen was a close match for Piastri, lapping just 0.002s slower than the McLaren driver in the fight for what had been top spot after the first qualifying simulation laps. There was little to pick between him and Piastri in any of the three sectors, but the McLaren was the faster of the two in the second and third splits, as Norris would go on to demonstrate.
Ferrari put in a relatively strong showing, with Charles Leclerc fourth and 0.577s off the pace. Carlos Sainz followed a further 0.261s back.
George Russell was Mercedes’s lead representative in sixth but was 1.03s off the pace.
Esteban Ocon made up for time lost in FP1 to a power unit water leak by getting out on track rapidly at the beginning of FP2, and though the Frenchman’s lap count was modest in the circumstances, he surprised with a midfield-topping seventh, 1.1s off the pace. Kevin Magnussen followed him closely in eighth, 0.084s further back.
Sergio Perez’s struggles from FP1 continued, with the under-pressure Mexican well off the pace of teammate Verstappen on his way to ninth in the order. Perez was 1.244s off the ultimate pace and 1.027s slower than Verstappen. Down in all three splits, he was particularly poor in the downforce-dependent second split, losing more than 0.6s to Verstappen in that sector alone.
Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10, 1.259s off the pace after complaining of significant degradation on his long run. He finished ahead of Aston Martin teammates Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso and Stake Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas.
Daniel Ricciardo’s session ended early after reporting that his car felt “wobbly” during his race simulation. The team replied that it could see a problem in the data and recalled him to his garage, where he ended the hour.
Pierre Gasly was 15th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu down to 19th.
Yuki Tsunoda was slowest of all, lapping 2.088s off the pace, but the Japanese driver was focused largely on race pace given he will be starting at the back of the grid anyway owing to a penalty for a power unit change.
Interestingly, Tsunoda was the quickest of any driver in the flat-out first sector and highly competitive in the second, hinting at a setup that will facilitate overtaking on Sunday. Ricciardo, who carries no penalty, was similarly quick in the same two splits.
