Brendan Lines 10 Sept, 2020

Racing Point and driver Sergio Perez will part ways at the end of season 2020, ending the 30-year old Mexican’s seven-year tenure at the team as it becomes Aston Martin in 2021.

Perez’s departure now leaves the door wide open for the much speculated arrival of four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel to the Silverstone based team.

With no potential drive in Formula 1, Perez said in his public statement there appears to be no ‘plan B’ for him at the moment.

“I don’t have a plan B. My intention is to continue racing here (F1) but that would depend on finding a project that motivates me to continue giving my one hundred per cent in each lap,” he said.

Racing Point CEO and Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer made the announcement last night ahead of this weekend’s Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello, Italy.

“Checo has been part of the Silverstone family for seven years and in that time has become one of the most complete drivers on the grid,” Szafnauer said.

“Blisteringly quick on Saturday and Sunday, he’s established his reputation as a tenacious racer and together we have enjoyed some fantastic moments.

“If there was ever a sniff of a podium, Checo was ready to pounce, and those five podiums represent some of the finest days in the history of this team.

“Outside of the car, Checo is a true character and a good friend, and it’s been a pleasure working with him for such a long time.

“Although we will say goodbye at the end of the year, there are still nine races to go and plenty of opportunities for Checo to make some more special memories with this team.”

Perez has taken five of his eight career podiums, helping the team – as Force India – achieve consecutive fourth-place finishes in the Constructors’ Championship in 2016 and 2017.

In 2018, Perez was “asked” to start administration proceedings against the team as one of its creditors, to ward-off a winding-up petition against the team after the financial collapse of its then owner Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya.

Perez’s action helped save the jobs of 400 fellow employees at Silverstone, the team was then brought by current owner Lawrence Stroll who penned the Aston Martin deal this year.

So does Perez’s departure come somewhat unceremoniously?

It might seem that way, as the Mexican says he is hurt by the decision.

“It hurts a bit as I bet on the team during very rough times we managed to overcome obstacles and I am very proud of saving the jobs of several of my teammates,” he said.

Perez did have a contract in place at the team for 2021, the Mexican did signal his intent to see out that contract at the British Grand Prix while sidelined by a positive COVID-19 test.

Racing Point have been linked to Vettel, who was not offered a new contract from his current employer Ferrari this year.

Nico Hülkenberg is Racing Point’s other potential option, having stood-in while Perez quarantined, Hülkenberg qualified third at Silverstone having not driven a Formula 1 car since 2019.

But does the very public Vettel-Stroll elbow bump at Silverstone suggest the German has most likely got the drive?

Perez’s heartfelt public statement made last night, read:

“To the current administration, led by Lawrence Stroll I wish nothing but the best in the future, specially with the upcoming Aston Martin Project.

“I want to thank each one if you who have been with me throughout these 10 years.

“To my family who has been there to support me despite anything.

“To all sponsors who believed in my project, to my staff, and mainly God who blessed me with the opportunity to live thus incredible adventure called F1.

“I hope I can give you some good news, real soon, but for now let’s enjoy together the next race.

I carry you in my heart!”

Brendan Lines 7th Sept, 2020

Pierre Gasly took his maiden Formula 1 victory in a chaotic Italian Grand Prix for Alpha Tauri, beating McLaren’s Carlos Sainz in a last lap showdown by just under half a second, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll took third.

The Frenchman’s win came in the most chaotic circumstances, as the race was red-flagged and race leader Lewis Hamilton was handed a 10-second penalty for ignoring closed pitlane signals under a safety car on lap 20.

Pierre Gasly celebrates with Alpha Tauri team members – Image Scuderialphatauri.com

But in the chaos Gasly rose to the occasion to be the unlikely toast of Monza, in place of the albeit ‘virtual Tifosi’s much loved Ferrari — who suffered a double DNF for drivers Sebastian Vettel (Brakes) and Charles Leclerc (Collision).

“This is amazing! I’m lost for words! It’s unbelievable! I’ve been through so many things in the past 18 months and it’s better than anything I expected.” Gasly said after the race.

“I focused hard when I re-joined Scuderia AlphaTauri. Day by day, race by race, we improved ourselves and got stronger and stronger – this team gave me my first podium in F1 last year in Brazil and today, these guys gave me my first win in Formula 1, in Italy, in Monza, with an Italian team.

“I’m not someone who gives up on anything, I always fought for everything in my life until I made it to F1. Today it was a great day!

“When I was fighting the last few laps to keep P1, I knew how gutted I would have been if I had lost it, I wouldn’t have been happy with P2.

“I gave it everything I had – it was difficult – I pushed hard at the start of the stint to not give anyone the slipstream behind, then the last five laps were so intense, I almost shunted 10 times… I was pushing so hard!

“My tyres were gone but I wanted that win so much, it still feels weird to say I’m an F1 race winner.

“A big thanks to all of these guys here at the track and at the factory, in Faenza and Bicester, it’s a great day for them too. Most of them are Italian and the HQ is in Faenza, Italy, so to win the Italian Grand Prix is amazing. Thank you all.”

There was more reason to celebrate as the Faenza-based team took its first win since 2008 — coincidentally at Monza for Sebastian Vettel’s maiden win in extraordinary wet conditions.

If there was ever an argument for a reverse order grid race, the 2020 Italian Grand Prix was a perfect case study, as the race was turned on its head after Hamilton’s pit lane transgression and the red flag.

The first phase of the race played out in expected fashion as Hamilton dominated the start building a 13-second lead over the charging McLaren’s of Sainz in P2 and Lando Norris, P3.

While the sister Mercedes of Valterri Bottas had a wobbly start, dropping from P2 to P6, the Fin struggled in the aero wake of Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault, exposing Mercedes the Achilles heel to the seemingly invincible speed of the Silver Arrows.

But the natural order of things was tenuous, as on lap 26 the race was red flagged as Leclerc’s car left the exit of the Parabolica at high speed making a frighteningly spectacular impact with the wall, fortunately the Monegasque walked away unscathed.

The teams took advantage of a change of tyres during the stoppage, Racing Point’s Lance Stoll effectively gained a free pit stop to fit Medium tyres.

But the change to fresh rubber didn’t improve Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s already tough day, retiring from P14 with engine failure after the re-start.

Gasly drove brilliantly on the re-start keeping up with Hamilton, the Brit came into the pit lane for his penalty handing Gasly the lead.

The Brit had to charge from the back of the field recovering to P7 for seven valuable world championship points.

While Sainz and Stroll battled for P5 and P6, behind the surprisingly racey Alfa Romeos of Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

Giovinazzi’s own 10-second penalty got him out of the way of the Sainz-Stroll duel, the pair soon accounted for Räikkönen on lap 34.

Sainz could almost smell victory as he hunted down Gasly over the final laps, deploying every advantage of DRS and MGU-K battery power he could while his Renault engine in his McLaren was hamstrung by the recent banning of engine modes.

On the final lap Sainz was had a look down the inside of Gasly at the Rettifilo chicane, but Gasly’s Alpha had the traction to keep the McLaren in his wake as Sainz ate into the lead corner by corner.

Gasly kept the door shut into the final turn at the Parabolica and taking the chequered flag by just +0.415s.

Gasly now becomes the first French driver to win a Grand Prix since Olivier Panis’ unlikely win in the wet at Monaco in 1996.

The race also marks the final race founder Sir Frank Williams and daughter Claire with the legendaty British team.

Brendan Lines 6th Sept, 2020

The Renault F1 team will take on the Alpine name for 2021 after parent company Groupe Renault announced earlier this current Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul was put in charge of the Alpine name.

After Formula 1 teams unanimously signed the new Concorde agreements, with the capping of budgets and the implementation of new technical regulations from 2022, Abiteboul says it’s the right time for the team to change.
“This change comes at a key moment in the trajectory of the team and the sport. Alpine brings a new meaning, new values and colours to the paddock with the spirit of competition from other worlds and French creative agility,” Abiteboul said.

“These will be assets in the preparation of 2022 deadlines. The new regulatory and financial framework will establish the conditions for a fairer motor sport in its redistribution of revenues; simpler and progressive in its governance.

“The implementation of the “budget cap” will put an end to the expense race and will allow the signatory teams to be measured for their sporting value. Alpine has its place in Formula 1 and can challenge for victory.”

The change coincides with two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso’s return to the team as Australian Daniel Ricciardo leaves the team for McLaren next year.

Alpine is a subsidiary of the French Renault car brand, known for its success in endurance racing and rallying.

From 2021 the familiar yellow livery of the Renault team will take the French national colours Red, Blue and White.

From 2021 Alpine F1 cars will be designated the chassis name A110, the team’s engine will continue to benefit from the support of Groupe Renault’s hybrid powertrains and its E-Tech name will be retained.

CEO of Groupe Renault Luca De Meo, welcomed the announcement in a statement released by Renault on Sunday, the statement read:

“Alpine is a beautiful brand, powerful and vibrant, that brings a smile to the faces of its followers,” De Meo said.

“By introducing Alpine, a symbol of French excellence, to the most prestigious of the world’s automotive disciplines, we are continuing the adventure of manufacturers in a renewed sport.

“We are bringing a dream brand alongside the biggest names, for spectacular car races made and followed by enthusiasts. Alpine will also bring its values to the F1 paddock: elegance, ingenuity and audacity.”

Brendan Lines 5th Sept, 2020

Lewis Hamilton was back on top as the fastest Mercedes in FP2 overnight, the Brit finished two tenths ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris was best of the rest with a late lap surging him to P3 for McLaren.

Both Mercedes again were the only cars to lap in the one minute twenty mark, but despite his fastest lap if 1:20.192s.

Hamilton says there is more work to be done to be in the fight for Saturday’s qualifying and to avoid the nightmare Q3 traffic of last year.

“The car didn’t feel great in the first session but in the afternoon, it felt like we made some encouraging improvements and it was much better,” Hamilton said in Friday.

“We have a few more steps to make overnight and then I think it’ll be where it needs to. It’s quite a bumpy track here and with the low downforce, there’s a lot of sliding. You need to find the right balance with the bumps and between the low and high-speed turns.

“The field is typically a lot closer here, compared to Spa, as it’s such a fast lap and there aren’t many corners. Valtteri’s quick here, too, so it’s going to be a fun battle. It’s going to be interesting in Qualifying, obviously we didn’t get our final lap in last year and I think the last corner will be a bit of a nightmare with everyone trying to get a gap, so it’s going to be hard work.”

Alpha Tauri continued its solid Friday pace from the morning session, this time Pierre Gasly was fastest in P4, just over a tenth ahead teammate Daniil Kyvat in P7.

Max Verstappen wasn’t affected by his off in FP1 going fastest of the Red Bull with a lap of 1:21.228s for P5, six tenths ahead of the sister Red Bull of Alex Albon in P14.

Carlos Sainz improved from FP1, despite the team and engine supplier Renault still not able to pin point the exhaust issue that kept him out of the Belgian GP, the Spaniard’ s time of 1:21.313s was enough for P6.

Lance Stoll reversed the orders at Racing Point after the morning session, his time of 1:21.389 was some two tenths quicker than teammate Sergio Perez.

Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari some hope at its home race finishing P10 for FP2, the Monegasque complained the car was ‘very hard to drive after he had a similar off at the first if the Lesmo corners.

Sebastian Vettel’s rear end spun around earlier in the session, though he improved on FP1, the German could only manage P12 for the afternoon session.

Esteban Ocon was fastest of the Renaults in P11 some four tenths ahead of Daniel Riccicardo, but don’t be fooled, both Renault drivers had much faster lap times deleted for exceeding track limits.

Antonio Giovinazzi was again faster of the Alfas from the morning session in P13 ahead of Kimi Räikkönen in P17.

Kevin Magnussen was this time the fastest if the Haas cars in P16, two tenths quicker than Romain Grosjean in P18.

George Russell echoed Hamilton’s comments of the ‘nightmare slow moving traffic, the Brit was back in his car for FP2 but finished P20 behind teammate Nicholas Latifi in P19.

FP3 and Qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix begins 7:30pm ACST tonight.

Brendan Lines 5th Sept, 2020 08:18am

Valtteri Bottas began his hunt to close the gap in the World Championship lead setting the pace in Friday’s FP1 for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the Fin was +0.245 quicker than Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in P2 And Red Bull’s Alex Albon in P3.

Mercedes were able to stay ahead of the mixed up field despite new technical directives limiting the use of engine modes.

The Silver Arrows appear to have carried over its top speed in the low-downforce configuration, but Bottas believes there’s more to unpack.

“The car didn’t feel great in the first session but in the afternoon, I’m sure we can still improve it, for example the rear stability was lacking a bit in a few of the corners,” he said after FP1.

My lap in practice two wasn’t great so from my side, there’s quite a bit more to come as well. It’s an unusual track here, quite stop and start, with not so many high-speed corners and traction being very important out of the slow turns.

“The margins are so fine here and there aren’t many corners to make the difference.

“I was a little surprised by the lap times and performance compared to the others at this stage in the weekend, but I’m sure every team will find more time and it’ll be closer tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Red Bull’s Alex Albon was quick from the get-go his time of 1:21.500 was two tenths quicker than teammate Max Verstappen in P5, who’s struggle with car balance sent the Dutchman into the wall at the Ascari chicane red-flagging the session.

There was a deja-vu moment from 2019 as cars queued down the back straight looking for an aero advatage in the tow, but fortunately the field got on with the business of punching in fastest laps.

Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kyvat did just that finishing P5, just over a full tenth of a second ahead of his counterpart Pierre Gasly in P6, making for encouraging signs Alpha Tauri could be the fastest Italian team this year at Monza ahead of Ferrari.

The Scuderia had another double bogey session, finishing outside the top ten, Caherles Leclerc took P11 while Sebastian Vettel slumped to P19 some one and a half tenths down on Williams’ stand-in driver Roy Nissany in P18.

Sergio Perez was the fastest of the Racing Point cars in P7 fishing almost half a second clear of teammate Lance Stroll in P13.

Daniel Ricciardo was Friday’s curious case, after consecutive top three finishes in free practice sessions in recent weeks, Renault reported the Aussie was ‘focusing on future concepts‘ on his R.S.20.

Ricciardo finished P9 just over two tenths clear if teammate Esteban Ocon in P12.

Lando Norris was the fastest of the McLaren’s in P8 one and a half tenths ahead off Carlos Sainz in the sister McLaren, who rounded out the top ten.

Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen occupied P14 and P15 respectively, ahead of both Alfa Romeo’s lead by Antonio Giovinazzi from Kimi Räikkönen.

Nicholas Latifi finished P20 for Williams.

Brendan Lines 3 Sept, 2020 11:00pm

This weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza will mark the an end of an era in Formula 1 as the last race the Williams family will be at the helm of the team created by Sir Frank Williams in 1977, Williams won its first Drivers and Constructors World Championship with Australian driver Alan Jones in 1980.

The departure comes as Williams Racing was sold to US investment company Dorilton Captial in late August, after the team said in May it would embark on a “new strategic direction,” as the team felt the financial strain of the 2020 season’s COVID lockdown period along with eight years of declining performance since its last win in Spain 2012.

After 43 years and 739 Grands Prix, 114 Grand Prix wins, 128 pole positions, 133 fastest laps, seven Drivers and nine Constructors World Championships, the Williams family will leave the sport, after the recent conclusion of the Strategic Review process and consequent sale of Williams Grand Prix Engineering to the US-based investment firm ensuring the team’s future.

Daughter to Sir Frank and Deputy Team principal since 2013, Claire Williams says it is a timely point at which the Williams family have chosen to exit the sport.

“With the future of the team now secured, this feels like the appropriate time for us to step away from the sport,” she said.

“As a family, we have always prioritised Williams. We have demonstrated that by our recent actions with the Strategic Review process and we believe now is the right time to hand over the reins and give the new owners the opportunity to take the team into the future.”

Sir Frank and Claire have ensured the family have remained at the helm of the team since its first race in 1977. The team has been through many periods of triumph and adversity, but the rising costs to compete at the front of the field has simply gone beyond the means of a family business model.

Before her last Grand Prix this weekend, Williams’ last act as Team principal has been to be influence the successful campaigning for a more sustainable Formula 1 set out in the new Concorde Agreement.

The Agreement, now signed by all teams, maps out a more level playing field for the sport with more equitable financial and technical regulations moving forwards that all Formula teams will be able to capitalise upon from 2021 and beyond.

Williams said in a statement from the team she had hoped to continue her tenure into the future, but the need for inward investment, Williams said lead to ‘a number of factors, many of which were outside of our control, resulted in the sale to Dorilton Capital.’

At last week’s Belgian Grand Prix, Williams confirmed the family no longer owned the team, but was coy about her future; “This is very early days obviously, for the moment it’s business as usual,” she said.

The sale is reported to be US$ 180 million, the Williams family were paid 52 per cent of this from the US based company buyer who is believed to have strong European ties.

Dorilton is a private investment firm headquartered in the United States and Savage has lead the company since 2009. Prior to founding Dorilton, Savage was with Rothschild as an advisor for 22 years in both London and New York.

Williams also announced the Chairman of Dorilton Matthew Savage along with Darren Fultz and James Matthews will make up the company’s new Board of Directors following the acquisition of the team.

Having no apparent prior involvement in Formula 1 are Dorilton simply doing a favour or is there something else in mind? A sale of this value and the amount of debt involved is an interesting mix in the current world economic climate.

Savage, the now Chairman of Williams Grand Prix Engineering and Dorilton Capital said: “We fully respect the very tough decision of Claire and the Williams family to step away from the team and the business after securing new resources for its future,

“She has also been hugely instrumental in shaping a more level technical and financial playing field for F1, which will help to ensure the team’s return to the front of the grid in seasons to come.”

As the Formula 1 paddock farewells the Williams family at Monza this weekend, it will be the final end to the sport’s guard of pioneering constructors racing cars built in a garage born out of the dream of one man’s vision, to dominate the world’s most fiercely competitive and highest motorsport category.

Formula 1 is now exclusively where the conglomerates race.

Brendan Lines      30th Aug, 2020

Lewis Hamilton has  claimed his 93rd career pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton was over over half a second ahead of teammate Valterri Bottas and nearest rival Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in P3, Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo rocketed to an impressive P4.

 

Hamilton drove in commanding style improving on every lap in the qualifying sessions, with seemingly endless amounts of speed on tap, Hamilton blitzed the field in the clean air, as other teams opted to chase the tow looking for every ounce of assistance to match the pace of the Brit.

Hamilton dedicated his pole winning performance in memory of ‘Black Panther’ actor Chadwick Boseman’s passing.

“It’s really not easy to perform at your best when you have something weighing on your heart, and to be truthful it was so difficult to shake off that negativity and channel it into something exceptional, but Chadwick showed that was possible,” Hamilton said after qualifying.

“I’ve done a lot of laps in my F1 career, but those two laps in Q3 were almost perfect. You can’t see my face under my helmet out there, but I was smiling, this track is just incredible and I was totally on the limit,

“We decided to go out early and run in the clean air as it’s so easy to make a mess of the tow if you get blocked or there’s a yellow flag and we definitely made the right call. We’ve got a big race still to come tomorrow and the Red Bulls looked good on the long-runs on Friday.”

Valtteri Bottas’ Q3 lap was +0.511s shy of Hamilton’s pace, the Finn was unfazed missing pole and will start tomorrow’s race from the front row in Spa for the first time, both Mercedes cars will start on Medium tyres.

“But I’m actually not too bothered about missing pole, as starting second or third can be an advantage in Spa,” he said.

“We’ve seen it before that with a tow on the first lap you can overtake the leader going into Turn 5. I hope there’s plenty of opportunity tomorrow to try and fight for a good result and I’m looking forward to an exciting race.”

Verstappen has been hot on the heels of the Mercedes’ pace all weekend, his Q3 lap was just one hundredth off Bottas, the closest Red Bull has been to Mercedes in qualifying.

The Dutchman opted to deploy his power unit’s battery at the start of his Q3 lap, the result may have been different had there been more in reserve from his Honda-powered RB16.

“Overall, it’s been a really positive weekend so far, we came here and thought it was going to be really tricky for us and actually to be that close to Valtteri and in P3 is a good result,” he said.

“The lap was decent and of course I always look at the fastest car and we are half a second down but I think it is the closest we have been to Mercedes in qualifying this year,

“For us on this track, that is not normally our type of qualifying track, I think we can all be very happy with the result and now I’m looking forward to the race.”

Daniel Ricciardo  converted his Friday practice pace into qualifying results come Saturday, splitting the cars of his former team Red Bull, his P4 was locked away on his first run in Q3, bringing an all too familiar smile back to the face of the Australian.

“I’m very happy with today’s qualifying. It was so close to the top three, but Max got me by a couple of tenths at the end. My lap was clean and probably as good as it was going to get. I left it all out there and the second row is a big reward,” he said.

Alex Albon was matched his best qualifying result for the season in P5 and is now in the hunt for his first Formula 1 podium, the RB16’s set up finally working in the favor of the Thai driver, his Q3 lap was just two tenths down from Ricciardo.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon will start along side Albon in P6, it will be the first time both Renault cars will start in the top six this season.

Carlos Sainz was the fastest of the McLaren’s in P7, his first Formula 1 career top ten start at the Belgian track, while teammate Lando Norris rounded out the top ten three tensth off Sainz’s pace.

Sergio Perez lead the charge for Racing Point qualifying P8 with teammate Lance Stroll in P9 , both RP20 cars seemed to deliver below their expected pace over +1.2s off their Mercedes power counterparts.

The 60 per cent chance of rain forecast for the race is likely mix up the race, cars running slightly higher levels of down force could be the order of the day over outright horsepower of the all conquering Mercedes power unit.

The Belgian Grand Prix begins 10:40pm ACST tonight.

Full Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42.323	1:42.014	1:41.252	15
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:42.534	1:42.126	1:41.763	17
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:43.197	1:42.473	1:41.778	17
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:43.309	1:42.487	1:42.061	11
5	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:43.418	1:42.193	1:42.264	15
6	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:43.505	1:42.534	1:42.396	15
7	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:43.322	1:42.478	1:42.438	15
8	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:43.349	1:42.670	1:42.532	15
9	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:43.265	1:42.491	1:42.603	15
10	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:43.514	1:42.722	1:42.657	17
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:43.267	1:42.730		12
12	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:43.262	1:42.745		12
13	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:43.656	1:42.996		12
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:43.567	1:43.261		12
15	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:43.630	1:43.468		11
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:43.743			6
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:43.838			6
18	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:43.950			6
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:44.138			6
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:44.314			8

 

 

 

 

 

Brendan Lines      29th Aug, 2020 10:00am

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen threw down the gauntlet to Mercedes topping the charts in FP2 just +0.048s ahead of a surprising P2 for Renault’s Daniel Riccardo, Lewis Hamilton was fastest of the Mercedes in P3 +0.096 off Verstappen’s time.

Rain swept across the surrounding Ardennes Forest during the F2 support race Friday session, F1 cars took their time in FP2 waiting for the track to dry.

“Personally, I think Mercedes are still struggling a bit with the balance and I expect them to be stronger tomorrow. You can see already that they are very competitive on the long runs and I don’t think I will be fighting them for pole because we can’t really follow when they turn it up in qualifying,” Verstappen said after FP2.

“If we can at least be a bit closer that would be good ahead of the race. It was important to get some decent dry running today, even if the conditions change over the weekend, so we can find a good baseline. It’s never easy around Spa to find the perfect downforce level and you can see everyone trying different things, but I think we are in a reasonable place and we will find out tomorrow exactly where that puts us.”

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo’s P2 is an improvement on his run of P3’s in practice from previous weekends in Silverstone, but the Aussies FP2 performance was soured by a loss of hydraulic pressure parking his R.S.2O on the Kemmel Straight.

“It was another good FP2 as has been the case for us at the last few rounds. We have to do it tomorrow, though, as that’s when it counts. Today was strong, even with the issue at the end. For safety, we pulled the car over as there’s no point taking risks with mechanical issues on Fridays,”Ricciardo said.

“Our low fuel run was a good one. During the lap, I knew it felt good and sometimes you just know when the car’s working. I knew it was competitive and I wasn’t that surprised it was up there on the timesheets. It was a good day and we certainly understood a lot from it.”

Lewis Hamilton’s P3 came off the back of mixed runs on the Hard and Soft tyres, a slight wobble at the Bus stop chicane on his push lap cost the Brit, while teammate Valtteri Bottas put aside his birthday celebrations dropping from P1 in the morning session to P6 for FP2.

Alex Albon couldn’t quite keep up with his teammate Verstappen, but Albon’s P4 was an improvement from FP1 and his RB16 baseline setup is looking very suited to the Spa-Francochamps circuit.

Sergio Perez was the fastest of the Racing Point cars in P5, with just one car in the top ten for FP2, but Racing Point say they are finding new areas of improvement that will see Lance Stroll back in the fight come FP3 over one lap pace.

Lando Norris lead the McLaren’s after a power unit problem forced him to wind down his engine power to ‘Scenario 1’ under the teams instructions, his lap of 1:44.168 was enough for P7 some three tenths ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in P9.

Esteban Ocon couldn’t match Ricciaro’s pace settling for P8, while Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten for Alpha Tauri challeging for his fourth consecutive Q3 appearance in as many weeks.

Full FP2 Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:43.744		21
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:43.792	+0.048s	12
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:43.840	+0.096s	23
4	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:44.134	+0.390s	21
5	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:44.137	+0.393s	23
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:44.162	+0.418s	27
7	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:44.168	+0.424s	22
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:44.208	+0.464s	23
9	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:44.474	+0.730s	23
10	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:44.600	+0.856s	27
11	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:44.678	+0.934s	23
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:44.826	+1.082s	26
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:44.861	+1.117s	29
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:44.896	+1.152s	23
15	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:45.440	+1.696s	19
16	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:45.463	+1.719s	25
17	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:45.683	+1.939s	21
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:45.774	+2.030s	26
19	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:45.834	+2.090s	12
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:46.242	+2.498s	12