Alpine’s Pierre Gasly kicked things off in the second session of the day with a 1:30.527. Ocon beat that by 0.344s, before Piastri did a 1:30.027 to go fastest.
Perez beat the Australian by 0.013s in spite of chronic understeer at Stowe, but he was beaten seconds later by Max Verstappen as the Dutchman pumped in a 1:29.550 to go P1 by 0.464s. The World Champion also had a moment through the final sector as he had a big snap on power coming out of the penultimate corner.
The McLaren of Piastri improved again as a 1:29.811 moved him up to 2nd – that included a purple last sector.
On his next flying lap, Sergio Pérez put a good lap together as a 1:29.451 left him fastest with 12 minutes gone. Verstappen, Gasly, Piastri, Norris, Hamilton, Ocon, Russell, Alonso and Stroll completed the top 10. Most were on the mediums, but Gasly, Norris and Stroll used the hard compound.
After a snap through Stowe on his first attempt, Carlos Sainz logged a 1:29.083 to go fastest by almost 0.4s from Pérez.
The other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was stuck in the garage with a electrical problem. It was reported by Channel 4 that flames appeared from the SF-23 ahead of the session starting. The Monegasque failed to get out.
Before the qualifying simulations started, Sainz led Pérez, Verstappen, Piastri, Hamilton, Gasly, Norris, Tsunoda, Albon and Ocon. 0.993s covered the top 10.
Verstappen recovered from his messy medium lap to smash in a 1:28.078 on softs to reclaim top spot. Sainz also made a great improvement on the C3 to get within 0.022s of the Dutchman.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
The Williams of Alex Albon showed tremendous pace once again to slot himself into P3 ahead of Sergio Pérez. Logan Sargeant backed that up as he went into 5th.
Problems hit Aston Martin as Fernando Alonso had to slow down due to debris at the front left of his AMR23. Lance Stroll also had to box because one of his mirrors broke.
Following the qualifying simulations, Verstappen was fastest from Sainz, Albon, Pérez, Sargeant, Stroll, Hülkenberg, Gasly, Piastri and Alonso.
Once again it was Zhou Guanyu showing the way at Alfa Romeo as he went P11, ahead of Russell, Ocon, Norris and Hamilton. Mercedes looked off the pace, but there is a strong likelihood they ran more fuel and a lower engine mode than other teams. Norris made an error in the final sector on his first flying lap as he ended up 0.3s slower than his stablemate.
Bottas, Magnussen, Tsunoda and De Vries completed the runners who ran in the session. Leclerc is on the backfoot heading into the weekend with his problems in FP2.
Right at the end of the session, Nyck de Vries’ front right tyre let go on the hard compound into turn 3. The Dutchman had to pull off.
