Verstappen set a 1m44.472s on soft tyres to edge out morning pacesetter Valtteri Bottas by just 0.041s, while Lewis H♚amilton put his Mercedes third, just 0.072s off the Dutchman’s FP2 benchmark.

Unlike Verstappen, however, both Merce🌼des drivers set their fastest times on the medium tyre during their earlier runs, suggesting there is more pace to come from the reign🍬ing world champions.

Second practice was interrupted by a pair of lat💖e crashes for Charles Leclerc and Verstappen.

Leclerc caused the first red flag of FP2 when he hit the wall💦 after losing his Ferrari coming out of Les Combes before Verstappen also found the b♌arriers when he spun off at Malmedy.

With less than two minutes left on the clock, the session was halted for the second and f♎inal time, bringing FP2 to a premature end.

The inc✤idents disrupted all of the team’s long runs as the drivers swi𝐆tched focus from one-lap pace to preparations for Sunday’s grand prix.

Fernando Alonso, who ran a visor-cam on his helmet, put his Alpine fourth with a str🥀ong lap, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll.

Esteban Ocon avoided the barriers despite having a big spin at Fagnes as he finishe൲d seventh, ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin and McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Almost a second o🍷ff the pace of his teammate, Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 on an afternoon it was announced he had secured his Red Bull F1 seat for 2022.

Results from second practice for the 2021 F1 Belgian Grand Prix.