Belgian GP: Raikkonen outpaces Hamilton in FP2

Hamilton initially had the advantage for Mercedes on the first runs, setting a best time of 1m44.369s on medium-compound Pirellis to go fastest.

But he was only 0.031s faster than Raikkonen, who used soft tyres, and things reversed when drivers moved on to their qualifying simulation runs.

Raikkonen was the first of the frontrunners to head out on the supersoft Pirellis, banging in a lap of 1m43.555s with just under 58 minutes of the session remaining.

Two minutes later, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas slotted into second, but Hamilton was already on his quick lap and reclaimed second place moments later with a time of 1m43.523s

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was forced to abort his first push lap thanks to a moment at the Turn 14 right hander, which eliminated any chance he had of challenging for top spot.

Although Vettel improved on his second and third quick laps to work down to a 1m44.046s, he ended up fifth behind the fourth-placed Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who lapped 0.691s off the pace.

Daniel Ricciardo was sixth fastest, just over two tenths behind Verstappen, after sitting out FP1 with an injector problem.

Racing Point Force India driver Sergio Perez was best of the rest in seventh place, and was one of the later drivers to head out on supersofts after a 21-minute stay in the pits – with only the McLaren drivers bolting on the fastest tyre compound after him.

Perez's lap of 1m44.662s was 1.308s off the best time but gave him a massive advantage of eight tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the midfield, headed by Renault's Carlos Sainz.

Sauber duo Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc set their best times moments apart to secure ninth and 10th, with less than a tenth of a second separating the pair.

Nico Hulkenberg was 11th fastest, but did not use the new-specification floor he ran in FP1 – as the part was given to Sainz for this session.

Haas pairing Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were 12th and 14th fastest, sandwiching the second Force India of Esteban Ocon – who only completed one lap on his first set of tyres thanks to a left-rear puncture.

Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 15 for Toro Rosso just ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso, who posted his best lap with 35 minutes remaining.

Brendon Hartley, in the second Toro Rosso, was 17th ahead of Williams pairing Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll.

Stoffel Vandoorne was slowest for McLaren, with a lengthy stay in the pits following an initial run during which he described the car as "undriveable" ahead of a promised floor change.

He was the last driver to set his best time, but it was 0.026s slower than Stroll and moved him no further up the timesheets than his earlier pace on medium-compound Pirellis.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	29	1'43.355			243.959
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	28	1'43.523	0.168	0.168	243.563
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	29	1'43.803	0.448	0.280	242.906
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	25	1'44.046	0.691	0.243	242.338
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	31	1'44.129	0.774	0.083	242.145
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	31	1'44.250	0.895	0.121	241.864
7	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	27	1'44.662	1.307	0.412	240.912
8	Carlos Sainz	Renault	Renault	29	1'45.481	2.126	0.819	239.042
9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	24	1'45.537	2.182	0.056	238.915
10	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	Ferrari	25	1'45.622	2.267	0.085	238.722
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	28	1'45.753	2.398	0.131	238.427
12	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	29	1'45.817	2.462	0.064	238.283
13	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	24	1'45.935	2.580	0.118	238.017
14	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	29	1'46.078	2.723	0.143	237.696
15	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Honda	33	1'46.080	2.725	0.002	237.692
16	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Renault	28	1'46.153	2.798	0.073	237.528
17	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Honda	35	1'46.337	2.982	0.184	237.117
18	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	Mercedes	35	1'46.451	3.096	0.114	236.863
19	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	34	1'46.470	3.115	0.019	236.821
20	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Renault	25	1'46.496	3.141	0.026	236.763