The session starts with several cars heading out of the pits immediately, most on medium tyres, with the exception of the two Aston Martins who choose softer compounds. Latifi and Alonso follow right away on hards and with Ocon coming out on track as well, Charles Leclerc is the only driver still in the garage. 

Bottas first flying lap puts him ahead of Verstappens’ Red Bull with a full second gap between them. Hamilton goes second soon after with a 1.33.289s and it’s now time for Leclerc’s Ferrari to come out on hard tyres.

Ten minutes into the session Mazepin spins coming out of the final corner at Turn 15, but quickly gets going without damage. Verstappen is forced back into the garage as carbon fibre flies off of his front wing while he is riding through the Turn 2 kerbs. Debris is cleared out during a brief Virtual Safety Car.

Carlos Sainz moves up from 16th place to P7, but loses it rather quickly as Alonso makes his way to 6th. Shortly after his teammate Leclerc goes 8th and Pierre Gasly takes P6. Bottas still leading as he comes back out from the pits with a set of soft tyres, but he doesn’t improve.

Perez, Ocon and the Williams are next to try on the fastest compound with the rest of the grid following closely after.

Halfway through the session Fernando Alonso goes third with a 1.33.384s, with Raikkonen behind, while Chrles Leclerc goes off track at Turn 6 while trying to overtake Ocon off the ideal line.

Verstappen jumps to P1 in front of Bottas with a "not too bad" 1.32.872s, while Lando Norris goes off at Turn 6 but still manages to go P7 behind Sainz’s Ferrari. It’s P5 for Charles Leclerc as Gasly takes 6th place. Only ten minutes to the end of the session and Fernando Alonso is fastest in the middle sector on hard tyres. Bottas comes out in medium compounds, same tyres that are running in Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s cars. While the two Alfa Romeos are in P9 and P11, the Aston Martins are down in 15th and 16th place.George Russell keeps Mazepin’s Haas behind at Turn 1 forcing the Russian to abort the lap.

A bit of troubles for Lewis Hamilton as he ends up in the run off area at Turn 14, a few minutes before the chequered flag.

FP2 ends with Max Verstappen at the top, only 0.008s ahead of Valtteri Bottas. The other Mercedes stands in P3, 0.253s behind , followed by Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc. It’s respectively P6 for Esteban Ocon and P7 for Gasly;at their home race. Completing the top 10 are Sainz, Raikkonen and Norris. At the back of the grid the two Haas, Williams and Aston Martins.

Here's how FP2 finished 👀#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/6BIKVUu9kI

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 18, 2021