Practice 2 Report - Our Hero

By Dan Knutson in Spa-Francorchamps

Thousands of people have come over from Holland to watch their hero Max Verstappen drive at Spa. He's a hero in Belgium as well because his mother is Belgian. He did not disappoint his fans as he clocked the fastest lap time in Free Practice 2, beating his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the process.

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 102 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Centigrade.)

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Ferrari - Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Williams Mercedes - Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull TAG Heuer - Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. Force India Mercedes - Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. Renault - Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer. Toro Rosso Ferrari - Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz. Sauber Ferrari - Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. McLaren Honda - Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Manor Mercedes - Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon. Haas Ferrari - Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez.

Alonso did just three laps in FP1. His engine had a water leak and had to be changed. The team decided to put in an entirely new power unit, so he will get a 35 place grid penalty. Hamilton will have a 15 place grid penalty for his new engine, and Marcus Ericsson a 10 place penalty for the same.

Grosjean and Palmer took to the track first. Alonso also headed out. Bottas clocked the early time to shoot for - a 1:50.412. Fellow Finn Raikkonen beat that with a 1:49.926, which he then lowered to a 1:49.815. Teammate Vettel had a messy run with traffic and could get nowhere near to Raikkonen's time.

17 minutes into the session Hamilton clocked a 1:49.782 on the soft compound Pirellis.

Shortly thereafter Palmer coasted to a stop at Turn 9 and radioed that he had lost power. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed for two minutes.

Now, with just about everybody in the pits, the top 10 were: Hamilton, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Bottas, Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Rosberg, Perez, Vettel and Massa.

Speaking of power, Mercedes tweeted: "Lewis Hamilton is running a fresh PU in #FP2. So, ICE 5, MGU-K 5, MGU-H 7 and TC 7. This means a further 15 place penalty."

After getting instructions from his engineer, Palmer got his Renault restarted and headed for the pits.

At the one-third mark of the session, Ricciardo used a new set of the soft compound Pirellis to turn a 1:49.133. But Perez ran the super softs to beat that with a 1:49.100. Verstappen complained that Raikkonen had blocked him on his quick lap.

Next, Hulkenberg ran the super softs to top the charts with a time of 1:48.657. Vettel's lap on the super softs was 0.366 of a second slower than Hulkenberg's time.

So now, with 50 minutes to go, the top 10 were: Hulkenberg, Vettel, Perez, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Hamilton, Kvyat and Button.

Hamilton, who is going to start from the back of the grid in the race, concentrated on doing long runs on the medium compound slicks.

Halfway through FP2 Ricciardo clocked a 1:48.341 on the super softs. Other drivers were now using the super softs, including Wehrlein who jumped up to ninth place. Only five drivers had yet to set a time on the super softs.

One of them was Verstappen who now roared around in 1:48.085. The fans loved that!

At the one hour mark the top 10 were: Verstappen, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Vettel, Perez, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Button and Gutierrez.

All was not well for Verstappen, however, as he radioed: "I'm not having the power I should have."

It was long run time during the last 30 minutes, and most of the drivers were on track.

"With hot weather expected to continue, all the data collected today should be very race relevant," Pirelli tweeted.

The top 10 remained unchanged with the fans' hero at the top of the charts.