Max Verstappen has swept Friday practice with another session-topping time in a close-run FP2 ahead of local favorite Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen lowered the day’s benchmark to 1m 13.907s with his single push lap on the soft-compound tire early in the session, and no-one who followed was able to better it.
Alonso, who had spent first practice earlier in the day evaluating car upgrades, got closest. The Spaniard strung together a lap just 0.17s shy of the Dutchman, including the fastest time in the final split.
Nico Hulkenberg was s surprising inclusion in the top three, putting his Haas within 0.27s of the leader.
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The German’s time was indicative of an unusually close session. The top 10 were spread across just 0.55s, and Williams, the slowest car, was only 1.149s off the pace at the back of the pack.
Sergio Perez was fourth-quickest and 0.3s slower than his teammate despite what appeared to be some repair work being undertaken under the left side of his car early in the hour.
Esteban Ocon was only fractionally further behind the Mexican despite reporting hybrid deployment problems, the interval between them standing at a slender 0.004s.
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz led the session early before being deposed by the rampant Verstappen and dropping to sixth and seventh respectively. Despite both being equipped with Ferrari’s latest upgrades, each built their laps differently, with Leclerc almost a match for Verstappen in the final two sectors but Sainz much closer in the first split. Both were around 0.35s off the pace.
George Russell was eighth after an early trip through the gravel after stumbling across a slow-moving Oscar Piastri, keeping ahead of a competitive Valtteri Bottas for Alfa Romeo and Pierre Gasly for Alpine.
Lewis Hamilton was 11th with the fastest time in the first sector, but his pace fell away dramatically over the rest of the lap, eventually amounting to a 0.642s deficit to Verstappen.
Piastri was the quickest McLaren in 12th ahead of Zhou Guanyu and Lando Norris. Kevin Magnussen put his Haas 15th and more than half a second slower than lofty teammate Hulkenberg.
AlphaTauri teammates Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda were closely matched in 16th and 17th ahead of an unexpectedly uncompetitive Lance Stroll. The Canadian didn’t appear to have any obvious issues on his lap but was almost a full second slower than teammate Alonso and 1.103s off the pace.
Williams drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant completed the field in 19th and 20th, 1.1s and 1.5s off the pace respectively.
