#BelgianGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen quickest despite crashing out. #F1

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quickest in a red-flag affected FP2 session at the Belgian GP despite crashing out in the closing stages with Mercedes pairing Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton second and third respectively.

Like it was in the earlier opening practice session, FP2 began in damp conditions thanks to rain falling between the two 60 minute sessions, although there was a dry line already visible when Bottas lead the pack out on the green side-walled intermediate rubber when the lights went green.

Bottas, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Lando Norris completed their early sighting laps on the intermediates before pitting to put on the slicks – lead by McLaren’s Norris.

The Briton posted the first effort – a 1:48219 – on the C2 white-marked harder tyres, which Norris beat on his second flyer with a 1:47.138.

As the rest of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps dried rapidly, the rest of the field emerged on the slicks and the lap-times began tumbling – with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon going fastest after the first quarter mark had passed thanks to his 1:46.638, also on the harder rubber.

This was soon beaten by Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi setting a 1:46.198 on the C3 yellow-marked mediums, before the Canadian was trumped by Bottas putting in a 1:44.513 – the Mercedes also running the medium tyres.

Verstappen slotted behind Bottas on the time-sheets before he was pipped by Hamilton, who wound up 0.031 seconds behind his Mercedes team-mate at this part of the session, with the reigning world champion now running a smaller rear wing on his F1 W12 racer compared to the set-up he ran in the opening session.

At the midway point, the Mercedes pairing were amongst the runners who put on the C4 Pirelli softer compounds to complete their qualifying simulation runs, but neither Bottas or Hamilton could improve on their personal bests with their soft tyres – although the latter set a purple in the sector two.

When Verstappen came out on the softs a few minutes later, the Dutchman jumped to the top of the pile with a 1:44.472, beating Hamilton’s best effort in the technical second sector before losing ground in the final sector.

But nevertheless, it was enough for Verstappen to claim P1 by 0.041 seconds to Bottas’ best effort on the medium rubber, with Hamilton a further 0.072 seconds behind in third, with his time also posted on the yellow side-walled tyre.

Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso set the fourth fastest time of the session in-front of Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who were fifth and sixth in the order.

Esteban Ocon ended up seventh in the other Alpine entry after suffering a wild spin approaching the 40th minute mark in FP2 when he lost the rear of his A521 racer exiting the Fanges Chicane and travelled sideways a long way down the circuit towards the right hand of Stavelot before coming to a halt the wrong way and then returning to the pits with no damage, only a set of ruined softs.

Vettel, Norris and Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez completed the top ten following their qualifying simulation runs, with the Mexican also one of the runners who posted his time on the mediums.

With the rain holding off, teams were able to do longer runs later on into the session to gather data for the race, but this segment was interrupted.

First, with 15 minutes left on the clock, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who ended the day 18th in the order, crashed at the final part of Les Combes – after losing the rear of his SF21 racer when he hit the throttle out of the second part right-hander.

Leclerc’s attempts to catch the error brought him onto the kerbs on the inside and the Monegasque-youngster slid into the barriers between the turns six and seven, which knocked off his front-left tyre and brought out the red flag.

After a small delay to remove the SF21, the session went green with ten minutes left and the majority of the field lined-up at the end of the pit-lane.

They began to complete further long race runs until Verstappen crashed out with three minutes remaining – also at the final sequence of Les Combes, turn seven, exiting the corner compared to where Leclerc suffered his shunt.

Verstappen lost the rear of his Honda-powered RB16B racer at high-speed as he went through the rapid right-hander and the Dutchman went off backwards into the barriers on the outside, damaging both his right-side wheels.

With a grain of timing left on the clock and gravel scattered over the track due to the incident, the session was not restarted.

The other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz came 11th on the time-sheets and ahead of Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was 12th, along with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Raikkonen who ended the day in 13th and 14th places.

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo finished the afternoon in 15th and ahead of Williams Racing pairing Latifi and George Russell who were 16th and 17th respectively.

The aforementioned Leclerc ended up 18th after his crash and in-front of Haas F1 Team duo Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher who brought up the rear.

You can read the full Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1074/belgium/practice-2.html

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