Kimi Antonelli carved a 1:45.944 lap on the soft compound, taking the lead of Formula One’s second practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix before the track was halted twice by red flags.
Hold‑up by the circuit: a double red flag
The first stoppage came early, as gravel emerged at Stavelot and the racing was paused to clear it. A second flag followed a crash by Pierre Gasly in the final fifteen minutes of the session. Gasly, who lost the rear out of Les Fagnes, lapped with the rear wing released after clipping the outside wall.
Antonelli’s benchmark and the soft‑tyre chase
Antonelli’s opening 1:45.944 run eclipsed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and left Lando Norris only 0.19 seconds behind. After the five‑minute delay, teams pressed on with qualifying simulations. Hadjar secured a 1:46.714 which briefly put him at the top of the grid order, but he will incur a grid penalty for the race due to an excess of power‑train changes.
Re‑establishing momentum amid the turbulence
Verstappen recovered to take third with a 1:46.416 run, while Hamilton, who was briefly denied a lap due to a control board mix‑up, completed the race‑ready line with a lap comfortably inside the 1:45 mark. Hadjar inched ahead of Oscar Piastri, who sat outside the top ten after a 20‑minute repair of his car’s hydraulics.
Other drivers’ performances
George Russell finished eighth, 1.2 seconds behind teammate Verstappen, while Badin‑Red Bull teammates Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson joined the top ten. Charles Leclerc, who had won at Silverstone, could only register an 11th‑place time of 1:47.0, which was rejected for cutting the corner at Raidillon.
Implications for the upcoming race
With Antonelli’s blistering pace, the Red Bulls are set to battle for front‑row positions ahead of the closing, tyre‑stressed lap. Hadjar’s penalty will places him considerably lower than the on‑track time suggests, adding intrigue to the Sunday grid battle. The two Red Bull teams need to fine‑tune their setups to match Antonelli’s momentum, while the rest of the field will seek another opportunity to close the gap before the start of the race.
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