Second practice got underway with cloudy skies and rain threatening.
The Haas of Kevin Magnussen logged a 1:16.766 to kick things off on mediums.
Max Verstappen was the first driver into the 1:13s as a 1:13.775 on hards put him 0.3s clear of Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc beat that soon afterwards by 0.371s as he continued his strong start from FP1.
The Monegasque driver continued to improve as a 1:12.372 put him 0.887s clear of Max Verstappen. Hamilton and Norris got a bit closer on the mediums, but they were both 0.7s slower than the Ferrari.
Logan Sargeant and Yuki Tsunoda said they hit the pit all. A replay showed the Williams driver clipping the wall at the last corner.
At the 15-minute mark, Leclerc (1:12.125) led Hamilton (0.837s), Alonso, Norris and Verstappen. Russell, Sainz, Tsunoda, Stroll and Perez completed the top 10.
The 26-year-old kept improving and a 1:11.573 on mediums saw the home hero to go 0.957s quicker than Hamilton on the same tyre. Max Verstappen went P3, 1.150s away on the hards. Sainz, Piastri (hards), Alonso, Norris, Stroll, Russell and Gasly completed the top 10.
Tsunoda, Perez, Bottas, Albon, Ocon, Hülkenberg, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Sargeant and Guanyu completed the order ahead of the qualifying simulations on softs.
Leclerc continued his domination on the softs as a 1:11.276 saw him put half a second on Verstappen with the same tyre. He was going even faster on his next laps but small errors at turns 6 and 8 forced him to back out of it.
At turn 7 on another lap, Verstappen hit the wall with his left rear tyre and had to abandon his attempt. Both Red Bull drivers were extremely unhappy with the car over team radio.
RB F1’s Yuki Tsunoda grazed the wall at turn 1 as the Japanese driver continued to go to the limit. Both Alpines also had moments, clipping the wall at turn 16 in separate incidents.
Behind Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton slotted into 2nd as a 1:11.466 got him within 0.188s of the Ferrari. Alonso, Verstappen and Norris filled the remaining spots in the top 5.
Sainz, Stroll, Perez, Albon and Russell completed the top 10, with 0.979s covering them. The Canadian driver had a moment with the barrier as well and did not return to the track for race running on high fuel.
George Russell was consistently unhappy with the steering during FP2 as he struggled to match Hamilton’s pace.
Tsunoda, Piastri, Magnussen, Ocon, Hülkenberg, Ricciardo, Gasly, Sargeant, Bottas and Guanyu rounded out the order. The RBs, Saubers and Piastri did not use the softs.
On his race simulations, Leclerc went down the run off at turn 1 as he decided to bail out of trying to make the corner.
