Lewis Hamilton went fastest in FP2, ahead of Lando Norris and George Russell. Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari were close to each other, while Red Bull struggled to find grip.
Mercedes started off strong in FP2, continuing the good work showed in FP1, as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell went first and second fastest. Kevin Magnussen then placed his Haas between the two.
The grip was still low, and the drivers struggled with traction. Charles Leclerc improved his time and went first fastest, ahead of Russell by just 0.052s. Carlos Sainz was third, while Max Verstappen and Hamilton still struggled to set a competitive lap time due to issues with grip while braking.
The two McLarens were fifth and sixth, ahead of Verstappen, who had only managed to go seventh fastest.
Russell later took back the lead of the session as he fitted the soft tires, with Hamilton 0.214s behind. Oscar Piastri also improved with the softs, but he was only fifth, behind the two Mercedes and the two Ferraris.
Sainz then got closer to Russell, as the Spaniard went up to P2. Lando Norris became the new leader, 0.179s ahead of the Mercedes. So far, the only team that seemed to struggle was Red Bull.
Russell was improving his lap time, but he then found traffic in the last sector and couldn’t improve. Meanwhile, Verstappen aborted his attempt with the softs due to lack of grip in turn 3.
Hamilton took the lead of the session right before the red flag was deployed, as Alexander Albon’s Williams had a technical issue and the Thai driver was forced to stop on the track.
As the session resumed, the teams started working on the race pace simulation. As no one improved, the top ten of the FP2 session saw Hamilton on top, with Russell third and Norris sandwiched between the two. Sainz and Leclerc were P4 and P5, with Pierre Gasly in P6, Magnussen P7, Piastri P8, Nico Hülkenberg P9, and Yuki Tsunoda P10.
The two Red Bulls, that seemed a bit off the pace, were only P17 and P19.