Raikkonen beats both Mercedes cars, Vettel P5 - FP2 summary and results

Ferrari have once again topped the chart at FP2 at Spa Francorchamps, with Kimi Raikkonen this time posting the fastest time of the session, as he led both Mercedes cars in P2 and P3.

The session started out on harder compounds. Where most cars opted to do a hot-lap in the softs, championship leaders Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton went with the hard tyres. Surprisingly, it was the Brit who logged the quickest lap time, despite being on a harder compound. Vettel was back in P4, behind Hamilton, Raikkonen and Bottas respectively. Mercedes look to have the upper hand on medium tyres.

It was another frustrating session for local boy Stoffel Vandoorne, who had to watch his mechanics fix another mechanical issue on his MCL33. The Belgian had little time to put in a good lap, which is why he ended in P20. However, Alonso didn't do much better either, as the soon to be retired Spaniard could only muster a P16-worthy lap time. Another bad weekend ahead for McLaren?

After all cars came into the pit lane, which led to a few silent minutes on Spa Francorchamps, the super soft-runs began, and it was Ferrari who gained back control. Kimi Raikkonen claimed P1, followed by Hamilton and Bottas respectively. Vettel ended in P5, behind Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

Remarkably, both Sauber cars ended in the top ten best times. Marcus Ericsson led Charles Leclerc, as they finished in P9 and P10 respectively for the Swiss outfit. Not bad at all from them.

When the hot-laps ended, the second half of the hour-and-a-half session was used for long-runs, as is always the case in FP2. Lap times weren't improved as cars drove on full fuel tanks and did longer stints on single sets of tyres, meaning there wasn't much to report on.

The lesson learned from FP2 is that Mercedes are out-paced by Ferrari on the super-soft compound, but Mercedes look quicker on the mediums. For now though, it's the Italians who will be feeling good about tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's race, as they have topped the charts in both Friday practice sessions.