Belgian GP: Hamilton quickest in FP2 before rain hits Spa

Hamilton ended up relatively comfortable at the head of the times, defeating first-practice pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen as the Finn overshadowed his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel.

The initial flurry of laptimes settled briefly, with championship leader Vettel going quickest just after 10 minutes on a 1m46.405s, using supersoft tyres.

Valtteri Bottas briefly moved to the summit on a 1m46.331s on the same rubber 10 minutes later, but a lock-up at the La Source hairpin at the start of lap meant that was always beatable.

Hamilton then set a 1m45.634s on softs, and that remained the benchmark until the qualifying simulations just after the half-hour mark.

Vettel was first of the frontrunners to bolt on ultrasofts and he jumped to P1 on a 1m45.235s, which Bottas quickly beat with a 1m45.180s.

Raikkonen put Ferrari ahead again on a 1m45.015s, before Hamilton resumed his position in front.

The Briton failed to set an overall-best sector, but personal-best times in all three parts of the lap resulted in a 1m44.753s that left him a quarter of a second clear.

Vettel pushed again a few minutes later, setting the fastest first sector, but his lap fell away and allowed Red Bull's Max Verstappen to jump him into fourth, within half a second of Hamilton.

The teams switched to long runs and managed a few laps before light rain started to fall with 25 minutes remaining – and within five minutes every driver was back in the pits as the rainfall got even heavier.

Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso were the only two to head out for exploration runs, but chose intermediate tyres – and tip-toed back to the pits immediately in conditions that even full wets would have been insufficient for.

Ricciardo wound up sixth fastest, 0.8s slower than teammate Verstappen, after suffering a problem with the car in the first half of the session that briefly limited his running.

Nico Hulkenberg put Renault best of the rest in seventh, just ahead of Force India's Esteban Ocon.

Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) and Hulkenberg's teammate Jolyon Palmer completed the top 10.

Haas duo Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen ended up 13th and 16th, having started the session with almost simultaneous DRS failures.

Magnussen was later involved in an odd incident with Sergio Perez, angering the Force India driver by getting in his way at the Turn 9 left-hander and then weaving in front of him on the run downhill to Pouhon.

The only driver not to set a time was Felipe Massa, who failed to take part after his FP1 crashed resulted in a chassis change.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	17	1'44.753
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	21	1'45.015	0.262
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	17	1'45.180	0.427
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	16	1'45.225	0.472
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	20	1'45.235	0.482
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	15	1'46.072	1.319
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	24	1'46.441	1.688
8	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	19	1'46.473	1.720
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Renault	19	1'46.561	1.808
10	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	23	1'46.670	1.917
11	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	20	1'46.743	1.990
12	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	18	1'46.984	2.231
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	15	1'47.285	2.532
14	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	17	1'47.303	2.550
15	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Renault	12	1'47.450	2.697
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	15	1'47.556	2.803
17	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	13	1'47.861	3.108
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	12	1'49.214	4.461
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	18	1'49.725	4.972