Hamilton beats Verstappen in the F1 Portugalese GP FP2

After a late start to the session due to drain repairs, Hamilton recovered from a difficult FP1 to jump to the top of the timesheets during the soft-tire runs in FP2, even though his best lap time – 1: 19.837 seconds – was about two-tenths slower than that what his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas did in the morning.

Verstappen, who leaves Hamilton in the championship just one point behind in the second Grand Prix of this weekend in Portimao, finished second again in his RB16B.

The Dutchman’s session was momentarily interrupted by an issue with braking, but this turned out to be a minor issue when he returned to the circuit after a brief stint in the garage to share the Mercedes pair, with Bottas 0.344 seconds behind Hamilton FP2 benchmark.

Carlos Sainz was a strong fourth for Ferrari, while it was an encouraging afternoon for Alpine as both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were in P5 and P6 within 0.4 seconds of the lead.

Ferrari finished Friday with both cars in the top-10 as Charles Leclerc finished seventh ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s leading McLaren, who continues his quest to get his new team up to speed.

Rounding out the rest of the top 10 runners were Aston Martins Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez’s second Red Bull, with the Mexican unable to repeat the pace he showed in the first RP.

On the subject of matching items

Further down in the sequence, Antonio Giovinazzi returned to the cockpit of his Alfa Romeo after Ferrari junior Callum Ilott replaced his Grand Prix practice arc that morning.

The Italian finished 17th ahead of the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, who both again pinched Nicholas Latifi, who took a trip through the gravel of Turn 8 on his way to 19th.

FULL RESULTS FROM THE SECOND PRACTICE FOR THE PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX 2021 FORMULA 1.