It was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who set the pace in FP2 ahead of the Dutch GP as the prancing horses showed better pace than Mercedes – who dominated FP1.
Both Ferrari men were in the top two and managed to go faster than Lewis Hamilton, while Max Verstappen’s hampered start to his home Grand Prix weekend continued.
Leclerc’s lap in 1:12.345 put him comfortably at the top of the timesheet on Friday closely followed by his teammate Carlos Sainz, who was just +0.004s behind.
After gearbox issues brought his first practice to an end after just 10 minutes, he went into FP2 struggling to find speed at his home track, and only managed to finish in eighth.
Mercedes also continued to show good speed with Lewis Hamilton just 0.072s back in third and George Russell a further three tenths off the pace. Meanwhile, McLaren’s Lando Norris split the two Mercedes drivers after a good day on track for the young British driver.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez was also unable to get to grips with his RB18 and only managed to find enough performance to go 12th – the team will have a lot to work with overnight ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying session.
Daniel Riccardo also met issues with his McLaren during the second practice session which came to an early close with 10 minutes left on the clock due to an oil leak from the radiator of his car.
Just minutes later, Yuki Tsunoda beached his car in the gravel after going off track and brought about a red flag.
