Raikkonen keeps Ferrari on top at Spa

Raikkonen gets Ferrari service

After Sebastian Vettel went fastest in FP1, in second practice it was the sister Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who topped the timesheet at the historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit – though Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton kept the pressure on and finished a narrow 0.168s behind the Finn.

Raikkonen displayed Ferrari’s pace around this power-sensitive track, after the Italian squad and Mercedes both unveiled new-spec power units at Spa, to deliver a mighty 1m 43.355s, but less than a second split the top six.

Hamilton was a close 2nd

The sister Silver Arrow of Valtteri Bottas made up the top three, pipping Max Verstappen in the leading Red Bull, while Sebastian Vettel had to settle for fifth best, some 0.774s behind his teammate. Vettel had to abandon his fast lap when balked by traffic so he still has not shown his true hand.

Completing the top six was Daniel Ricciardo, who enjoyed more running in this session after an engine injector issue in FP1, and the Renault-bound Australian came home just over a tenth of a second behind Vettel.

By leading the field in the second practice session of the day, Raikkonen, a four-time winner at Spa, made it two out of two for Ferrari on Friday, after team mate Vettel set the pace in FP1. The team haven’t won at this famous track since 2009, and will be boosted by this performance heading into Saturday.

Best of the rest in FP2? Force India who – racing under a new team entry having come out of administration – repeated their FP1 exploits, with Sergio Perez setting the seventh best time.

Quotes

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: "It's good to be back. The break is never really long enough, but there is a point when you start to miss driving, so I'm happy to be back in the car again. These are the fastest F1 cars we've ever had, and you really feel it at this track. You go almost flat through Pouhon – it's crazy. We've brought a new engine today and everything was running smoothly. It's really close between us and Ferrari; it seems like we've both been bringing new updates at a similar rate. For the middle sector, you want to have a good amount of downforce, but you want less in the other sectors to gain speed down the straights.

"The challenge is to find the right balance and thankfully I have a great team working on that. Coming into the weekend I heard that it was going to be raining all weekend. There were some spits of rain on certain parts of the track in FP1, but in FP2 it was nice and dry. I hope it stays that way as this track is just awesome to drive in the dry."

Valtteri Bottas: "In general, the car felt pretty good today. The balance was slightly off in the beginning of the day, but we managed to correct that so that the car felt nice pretty much everywhere on the track. The lower speed sections were a little more challenging for us, as we struggled a bit with traction coming out of the corners. Ferrari looked a little bit quicker in some corner combinations like Turn 5 to Turn 7, but I don't think we're far off. However, it's always difficult to make any detailed predictions on Friday for the weekend as it is usually really close in Qualifying. In terms of set-up it is usually a compromise between Qualifying and the race; but given my grid penalty this weekend, the focus for me will obviously be the race. Fortunately, the long-run pace felt good and I am confident that it is possible to come up through the field here in Spa. The new engine also felt good today, so I'm looking forward to the race – it should be fun."

James Allison, technical director: "It was a curate's egg of a day. The good part of it was that we ran through the programme we planned without any mechanical dramas to the car and we picked up the information we need to have from the tires. The other good parts of it were that both drivers at various points of both session looked quick and that the new engines ran reliably and showed a promising performance. The area where we need to do more work is that the long runs were poor and scrappy affairs with both drivers. A mixture of traffic and flat-spotting meant that we didn't establish the rhythm that gives you a warm feeling going into Sunday. So it was not a bad day, but it could have been better and we will do our traditional job of tucking-in overnight to see what we can improve to make sure that the cars have got a good combination of single lap pace and long-run speed."

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel: "Overall, I think it's going the right way. Today it was a bit difficult to figure out where we are and I think we'll have to wait for tomorrow to have a better idea. The new engine has done what it was supposed to do. Today everything was working well. Now we'll see about tomorrow: rain shouldn't give us any more problems and, should we have wet conditions, it would be quite nice to have confirmation that we found the right things to do. On this track everything seems to happen faster, so it should be a lot of fun and if we have dry conditions tomorrow for qualifying, we should be ok. There are still some special tracks on the calendar and for sure this one in Spa is very exciting in terms of cornering speeds. We still need to do some work, but we have time to do it.''

Kimi Raikkonen: "That was our first day of practice after the break; we did our pretty usual job to get a feeling for the car once again. I enjoy driving on this track, it has a good flow and this generation of cars are pretty nice to drive here. I think Spa is a great circuit, but obviously this doesn't make you faster or slower! We always say that Friday is Friday and times don't really matter today; it was ok, but for sure we still have some work ahead of us. Tomorrow we'll try to do our best and see where we end up. We expected some rain today but it did not come. But the weather can still be a key point this weekend, as it changes very quickly here.''

Red Bull

Daniel Ricicciardo: "This morning I had some issues and the mechanics had to take the back off the car, which was time consuming, so I only completed one timed lap. Maybe they thought I needed an extended summer break but I was definitely ready to drive. This afternoon we made lots of changes and went back and forth on set-up. We learnt quite a lot but I felt that maybe as we improved one thing we created a problem with something else. With the limited running we haven't found the optimum balance yet and need to improve on both short and long runs. We will do a bit of homework tonight to find the best compromise and some more pace."

Max Verstappen: "It is always difficult to judge how you compare after day one as not everyone is pushing 100%. Today we mostly concentrated on setting up the car with very low downforce. Of course we know this won't be our strongest track so we are focusing on getting as close as we can on the short runs. Our long run pace doesn't look bad at the moment either so I'm quite happy with that, with a bit more grip it should be even better. We have to be realistic, fifth and sixth is about where we expect to be around here due to our power deficit but we are trying to optimise everything on the car to be as close as we can. Over the last few days the chance of rain has decreased which is a bit of a shame as this helps us close the gap. Already the orange flares have been lit which is great to see, it's nice to see so many fans out here supporting me on a Friday."

Williams

Lance Stroll: "We had some consistent running and were getting back into it after the break. We were working on set-up and the usual, but we'll see what tomorrow brings as you never know what everyone else is doing, so it is just best to wait for qualifying and surprise yourself or disappoint yourself! We still need another step in general grip and balance. The circuit is cool, especially sector two with the high-speed stuff, as it is always fun when you hook it up. The atmosphere around the track on a Friday is great and you can see some real proper racing fans enjoying the cars, which is always nice."

Sergey Sirotkin: "It was a usual Friday for us. It was busy, and we went through some interesting things. We don't see it from the point of view of the timing results, as they probably don't seem that positive, but I think we're finding a more stable base. The weather helped us and the track isn't the worst for our car. We still have the same balance limitations that have always been there, but the car is becoming more predictable and we're finding a better base than we've had previously. These are small steps, but they are in the right direction. It won't change our story massively, which we all know, but we're trying to squeeze the very best from what we have. I think we're in a good way."

Rob Smedley, head of performance engineering: "It has been a fairly straightforward day. We had a few aerodynamic tests to do this morning, which we ran through, but principally, we were concentrating on car set-up and, in particular, the rear wing level. I think we managed to understand from the first session where we needed to run with the rear wing level, so we did that and rebalanced the cars a little bit. The second session was just about trying to optimise the cars for low fuel and then get the long runs in. I think overall it is quite a difficult circuit, and you never get it dead right on a Friday, but both the drivers have done a decent job and we look like we may be able to edge forward slightly in relation to where we have been recently. We also brought forward some successful experiments from the Hungary tests, which will hopefully help us over the rest of the weekend."

Renault

Nico Hulkenberg: "I think the new floor does make a positive difference and we were able to work through our programme without interruption, which is always nice. It's pretty much a standard Friday story – we have a direction with the car and we can make it better. That's the plan for tomorrow."

Carlos Sainz: "It's great to get back into the car relaxed and refreshed. It was an uncomplicated day and we managed to follow our program quite well. The team brought some new parts that seem to work as expected, especially the new floor, which I tested in FP2. Good progress was made through the day. Spa-Francorchamps is a superb circuit so it's great to get any laps around here and I have good feelings for the weekend ahead. Now it's time to analyse both sessions and look for more performance with my engineers."

Bob Bell, chief technical officer: "We completed a full programme with no issues meaning we have a full set of data looking to tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's race, which is the best place to be at the end of a Friday. The new floor seems to be working as expected. We still have a little more work refining the set-up, but overall a positive day."

Toro Rosso

Brendon Hartley: "It was nice to take my first laps around Spa in a Formula 1 car after the summer break. It definitely woke me up going through Eau Rouge flat out the first and second lap! The day went pretty smooth without any technical issues with the car. There's plenty of data to look into, but unfortunately it seems both cars were a bit off the pace. We definitely have some work to do overnight, but it's once again quite tight from where we are to the top 10."

Pierre Gasly: "Overall, I would say it was a clean day for us. We knew we would struggle at this track because the characteristics of this circuit don't really work in our favour, so we tried to make the best out of our package. The car feels pretty good at the moment, but some of our main competitors were quite fast today so we need to work and improve to have a stronger day tomorrow. Hopefully we might see some rain, which could definitely make it more exciting!"

Jonathan Eddolls, chief race engineer: "It's great to be back on track after the two-week summer shutdown, and what better place to start the second half of the season than in Spa! It's a fantastic track that offers unpredictable conditions and can lead to very exciting races with many opportunities. Although there was a reasonable chance of rain during the day, in the end it never came so we had two clean sessions. After the successful test in Hungary, we came here with a number of setup ideas to try on a different track, so the majority of FP1 was spent trialling these, splitting the test across the two cars.

"Brendon focused on aero related tests while Pierre focused on mechanical side. These gave us the results we were expecting and we came out of the session looking reasonably competitive, especially given the circuit nature not necessarily suiting our car. Across the session we analysed all of the data and put the best setup options on the two cars. The FP2 session was a standard one, with the normal short runs followed by long runs. The Mediums are quite difficult to warm up in the cooler conditions, but the drivers were generally happy with the balance on the Supersoft. We didn't really find the lap time we expected, and our competitiveness dropped a little in FP2, which is something we will need to understand and work on tonight."

Haas

Romain Grosjean: "We were consistent, but not as fast as we wanted, so there's a lot of work to be done. We'll look to get a better performance for qualifying. The race looks a bit better, which is always encouraging. Being here at Spa is always amazing. Driving this circuit, it's very special. We got away with no rain today, so from that side, it's been a happy day. It was good to have a break and have some time with the family, but it's good to be back in the car. I missed it."

Kevin Magnussen: "It's been nice to get back in the car again, especially around here at this track in Belgium. It's great fun to drive. It wasn't as good a day as we'd hoped for. I think we have some work to do, but I don't think it's too bad. I think we can make up for some of it tomorrow. I'm confident we can make steps forward, so we'll see how much we can progress. We have a few new parts here, and I think we can get more out of it. Let's see how we go tomorrow."

Guenther Steiner, team boss: "They weren't perfect sessions today, but we are working to make it better – to find the right balance between downforce and drag. By no means are we happy with what we did today, but there's another day tomorrow, and we will work on it."

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson: "It is nice to be back in the car after the summer break – especially on a track like this. The day was trouble-free for us. We went through the planned program, and the car felt good. We tried some different set-ups and will analyse the data tonight to decide which direction to go in for the rest of the weekend. We are competitive and confident that we will stay in the fight tomorrow and on Sunday."

Charles Leclerc: "It was a positive day for us. The car feels good and I am happy with our performance as we finished the two free practice sessions in the midfield. We still have some work ahead of tomorrow, and will work tonight to make the step we usually do from Friday to Saturday. It is good to get back to racing after the break, and I look forward to being in the car again."

Pirelli
Mario Isola, head of car racing: "The track was very quick right from the first session this morning, also as a result of the rubber laid down by the recent Spa 24 Hours, which we supply exclusively as well. There were no real surprises from the practice sessions, apart from the fact that the performance gap of around a second between the two softest compounds was somewhat bigger than the 0.6 seconds we expected, although this is also obviously the longest track of the year. We're expecting the gap between soft and medium to be in the region of 0.8 seconds, but we still have to look at all the data carefully tonight. Tomorrow, everyone is expecting rain, although the weather forecast seems to be constantly changing, which is not unusual here. So far, the tires have performed consistently and strongly on what is well-known as one of the most demanding tracks of the year, with only a few small cases of blistering reported in the afternoon."

Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:43.355	+0.000s	29
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:43.523	+0.168s	28
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:43.803	+0.448s	29
4	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:44.046	+0.691s	25
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:44.129	+0.774s	31
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer	1:44.250	+0.895s	31
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:44.662	+1.307s	27
8	55	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:45.481	+2.126s	29
9	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:45.537	+2.182s	24
10	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber Ferrari	1:45.622	+2.267s	25
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:45.753	+2.398s	28
12	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:45.817	+2.462s	29
13	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India Mercedes	1:45.935	+2.580s	24
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:46.078	+2.723s	29
15	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:46.080	+2.725s	33
16	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Renault	1:46.153	+2.798s	28
17	28	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:46.337	+2.982s	35
18	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Mercedes	1:46.451	+3.096s	35
19	18	Lance Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:46.470	+3.115s	34
20	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Renault	1:46.496	+3.141s	25