Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the second free practice for the Portuguese GP, where he was one tenth of a second faster than Max Verstappen in Red Bull, which kept Mercedes at the top after the first day in Portugal.

The second free practice started 10 minutes later because the track delegates had to check the drain cover on one of the exit kerbs on the 4653 m long Algarve track, and the drivers hurried with a series of laps, mostly on medium tyres, soon after the start of FP2.

With an air temperature of 19 degrees and a track temperature of 39 degrees, all drivers except Mazepin in Haas came out on the track on medium tyres (C2) that no one but Haas drivers tried on the first free practice.

Verstappen set the best time, but was then knocked down by Sainz and Bottas who took first place for Mercedes with a time of 1:20.805 while Verstappen complained to his racing engineer about the brake-by-wire system after which he entered the pits.

20 minutes after the start of FP2, Perez set a new fastest time for Red Bull after he was fitted with a new floor that only Verstappen tried in the first practice session, but was soon knocked down by Hamilton, Sainz and Bottas, who returned to the top of the standings with a lap 1:20.423, 0.067 s ahead of Sainz.

Hamilton set the fastest practice time on soft tyres, 1:19.837, 0.344 s ahead of teammate Bottas and Sainz in Ferrari while Alonso drove the fourth fastest lap for Alpine with 0.383 gap with Ocon only 0.015 s slower.

Verstappen switched to soft 15 minutes before the end of practice and in his first flying lap he set the second fastest time, 0.143 s behind Hamilton, while Perez was only ninth with 0.679 s behind the fastest time.

Drivers then switched to longer runs with more fuel where they tested tyre behavior in race conditions so we didn’t see much improvement by the end of FP2 and Hamilton remained the fastest ahead of Verstappen, Bottas, Sainz and two Alpine drivers Alonso and Ocon.

Leclerc was the seventh fastest in the second Ferrari with 0.523 seconds behind Hamilton, and Ricciardo was the faster McLaren driver with 0.058 seconds behind Leclerc.

Stroll improved his best ten minutes before the end and took tenth place for Aston Martin while Perez was only tenth for Red Bull, four hundredths ahead of Gasly who finished outside the top ten for the first time this season in any practice session.

Norris was 12th fastest for McLaren and the last driver with a gap less than a second while Russell was very fast for Williams in 13th place, just two tenths behind Norris.

Tsunoda was half a second slower than Gasly in 14th place for AlphaTauri and Vettel was six tenths slower than Stroll in the duel of Aston Martin drivers and finished in 15th place.

Raikkonen was faster than Giovinazzi who missed the first practice to give the opportunity to Ferrari junior Illott – Alfa Romeo drivers finished 16th and 17th ahead of Schumacher, Latifi and Mazepin.

Mazepin was a second slower than Schumacher and 2.8 slower than the fastest Hamilton while Latifi was nine tenths slower than Russell, splitting the two Haas drivers as in the first free practice.

The third free practice is scheduled for Saturday at 13:00 while qualifying begins at 16:00 (CET).

FP2 RESULTS

1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.837 33
2 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:19.980 0.143 26
3 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.181 0.344 28
4 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:20.197 0.360 33
5 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:20.220 0.383 32
6 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:20.235 0.398 31
7 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:20.360 0.523 33
8 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:20.418 0.581 31
9 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:20.427 0.590 31
10 11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:20.516 0.679 28
11 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:20.558 0.721 34
12 4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:20.757 0.920 28
13 63 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:20.976 1.139 32
14 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 1:21.053 1.216 33
15 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:21.074 1.237 32
16 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:21.225 1.388 22
17 99 A.Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:21.238 1.401 32
18 47 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:21.537 1.700 29
19 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:21.855 2.018 31
20 9 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:22.638 2.801 28
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