With Max verstappen without looking for a good lap in the final stretch, but showing that he has a margin, the fastest of the day ended up being Charles Leclerc. The Ferraris demonstrated a superior competitiveness in sight in Belgium, although it was a session in which one of the great absentees was Lewis Hamilton.
Although all eyes were on how they were going to draw on this new and very winding circuit, reliability became the enemy to beat. At least for Mercedes, which after the breakdown of the Aston Martin of Sebastian vettel In the first free practice they saw how in the second it was the very Lewis hamilton the one who had to leave his W12 parked.
The severely worried seven-time champion went to the pits with just one timed lap given in this run. The joy of the Dutch fans could not be contained, predictably.
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It was not the only incident in the session that caused a red flag. Nikita mazepin he lost control of his Haas on the final ‘S’ of the circuit and got bogged down in the gravel.
In this case, the incident was far more predictable than previously anticipated.
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Once these problems had been solved, the pilots resumed their march in search of a good lap. Here Ferrari gave the chest ‘do’, since Charles Leclerc got first with Carlos Sainz second, in both cases with soft tires that worked perfectly in these track conditions, very different from those of Spa.
The Alpine men were also above expectations, with Esteban Ocon 3rd and Fernando Alonso 6th, although two of the ‘morlacos’ (at least one) sneaked between the two: Valtteri Bottas and Max verstappen.
Free times table 2 Netherlands Grand Prix
The third free practice sessions will be held this Saturday starting at 12:00.