Kevin Magnussen clocked the opening time of the session with a 1:19.475 on the supersofts – but that was very quickly beaten by stablemate Grosjean by over 3 seconds. Home hero Leclerc then went P1 on a 1:15.795 in his Sauber. 

The big guns came out and Vettel immediately jumped to the top thanks to a time of a 1:14.413 - but Brendon Hartley surprised them by going quicker on a 1:13.709 in his Toro Rosso. He led from Vettel, Raikkonen and Gasly 10 minutes into the session. Eventually, Vettel took P1 back after clocking a 1:13.180 on the ultrasoft.  

Verstappen came out later than most but he stormed to the top of the times instantly. The Dutchman clocked a 1:12.468 on the hypersofts to go 0.7s ahead of Vettel. His second push lap was even faster – a 1:12.267 was the time he delivered. It got even better for the young Dutchman as he found even more speed on his third timed lap; this time it was a 1:12.071 which put him over a second clear of anyone else.  

The session was red flagged around 25 minutes into FP2 due to the track needing repairs at turns 4 and 5.  

Verstappen easily led the times following the first runs of FP1. Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas, Hartley, Gasly, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso and Hulkenberg completed the top 10.  

Following a 15-minute delay, the session finally resumed.  

Verstappen improved on the second runs by a fraction – a 1:12.035. It could have been even better if it wasn't for traffic at the end of his first lap. The Dutchman was on another level to the rest for most of the session – but a late charge from team-mate Ricciardo saw the Aussie end up taking top spot and dropped the times into the 1:11s. A 1:11.841 was the fastest time of FP2 and 0.194s ahead of Verstappen.  

Vettel (+0.572), Hamilton, Raikkonen and Bottas (the big 6 were covered by 0.801s), Hulkenberg, Vandoorne, Alonso and Sainz rounded out the top 10. Hartley, Perez, Ocon, Gasly, Sirotkin, Magnussen, Leclerc, Grosjean, Stroll and Grosjean.