Friday’s second practice once again saw Valtteri Bottas head to the top of the timing board this time around one second quicker than his best FP1 lap.
Another 1-2 lockout for Mercedes as Hamilton followed the Finn home in second with a surprise 3rd fastest time coming from Pierre Gasly.
The weather stayed clear for the second practice of the day with all teams fearing the worst for tomorrow’s qualifying and the possibility of rain for the feature race on Sunday.
Weather reports have been showing a possible 20mm of rainfall on track for qualifying meaning a huge shake-up could occur for the running order of Sundays GP.
Meanwhile in FP2, the main news of the session was that Max Verstappen will face another grid penalty atop his existing 3-place penalty from the previous Monza GP.
The Dutchman will start 20th alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc due to yet another new power unit being added to his car.
Red Bull and Verstappen explained that the decision was made not only according to the FP1 results, where he lacked straight line speed, but also due to the weather forecasts which could work in their favor starting from the back (as we saw in the Hungarian GP).
Dutchman Max Verstappen is currently still 5 points clear of title rival Lewis Hamilton but fans could see a swap for the lead in the standings depending on the two drivers’ results.
As for the on track incidents both Giovinazzi and Leclerc had issues exiting turn 8. Antonio lost control of his Alfa Romeo and sent it backwards into the safety barrier causing a red flag.
His car was drivable afterwards, even with substantial rear wing damage, but his team ordered he stop due to parts flying off as he tried to return to the pits.
Leclerc was luckier and managed to keep his car on track when he spun in a similar manner exiting turn 8. The Monegasque driver continued on only to finish 10th.
Another pitlane kafuffle happened in FP2, this time with reigning champion Lewis Hamilton. As the Briton entered his lane for a trial tyre change he slightly over ran his marker causing the Mercedes front jack operator to be sent up in the air and backwards to the ground.
The jack operator was unharmed and Hamilton was quick to apologise over the radio.
With extreme weather expected tomorrow and only one practice left ahead of qualifying, it will be interesting to see how the teams perform in the wet!
Here are how the drivers classified for FP2:
Featured image source: twitter.com/mercedesAMGF1