Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen logged the quickest time in FP2 before qualifying tomorrow. Championship rivals Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel finished 2nd and 5th respectively.  

Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin set the opening benchmark of the session with a 1:47.781. Within seconds, Daniel Ricciardo, who was playing catch up after missing almost all of FP1, posted a 1:46.161. 

Raikkonen soon went fastest by over a second from Vettel and Ricciardo as the Finn got close to Vettel’s fastest time from FP1 in the very early stages of the afternoon session. 

After the first runs, Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time on mediums on a 1:44.369. Raikkonen, Bottas, Vettel, Verstappen and Ricciardo concluded the top 6.   

Perez, Ericsson, Gasly and Sainz completed the top 10 before the qualifying sessions began.  

The first of the big guns to do a qualifying sim was Raikkonen and he immediately smashed Hamilton’s time by over a second – 1:43.355 was the time posted by the Finn. It remained the fastest time of FP2. 

Behind the 2007 World Champion, Hamilton logged the 2nd quickest time, +0.168 off Raikkonen. Bottas, Verstappen, Vettel (who made an error on his first flying lap on the supersofts) and Ricciardo rounded out the big six.  

Perez, Sainz, Ericsson and Leclerc were the other four drivers who finished inside the top 10. 

Hulkenberg, Grosjean, Ocon, Magnussen, Gasly, Alonso, Hartley, Sirotkin, Stroll and Vandoorne filled the second half of the field ahead of FP3 and qualifying tomorrow. 

Attention turned to race simulations for the final 45 minutes of second practice and all three compounds for the weekend got used by the big teams. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all lapped between the low and high 1:48s for the most part during the race sims. It suggests a close race on Sunday.