After Daniel Ricciardo, Norris, Verstappen and Alex Albon had enjoyed brief spells in the top spot during the opening quarter of the one-hour session, Verstappen seized it again with a 1m19.511s set on the standard 2023 Pirelli C4 mediums rather than the prototype variety he had started on before pitting to get a visor tear-off removed from his rear suspension.
That stood as the benchmark for the remainder of the early laps the field completed on the hard, medium and prototype mediums, with Oscar Piastri then leading the switch to softs a few minutes past the one-third distance.
He duly blitzed to the top spot with a 1m19.163s on the red-walled rubber, with most of the rest of the field also taking that compound for qualifying simulation runs over the next 10 minutes.
Alonso then had the session’s most dramatic moment shortly before the halfway point when he spun out of Turn 9 with 25 minutes on the board.
In that incident, Alonso ran too hard over the inside kerbs of the rapid left-hander and the rear came around so severely he was spun completely around, pirouetting across the full duration of the short straight leading down to Turn 10.
Albon slotted in behind Piastri before both were demoted by others going quicker – led by Verstappen’s 1m18.686s set just after Alonso’s spin, with Norris coming in 0.119s behind in his wake.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez initially failed to beat his personal best set early in FP2 while running the prototype mediums, before he climbed up the order with a 1m18.988s that was 0.302s off the pace.
Perez was then demoted by Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc, who took third as one of the last drivers bar the Aston Martin pair to set a time on the softs.
Source: Autosport