George Russell proved he was over the disappointment of Spa by topping the times in second practice at Zandvoort for this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix beside the seaside.
The Mercedes driver's time of 1:10.702s was 0.061s quicker than McLaren's Oscar Piastri with their respective team mates Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris right behind, pushing local hero Max Verstappen down to fifth in the Red Bull.
Although the afternoon was dry and sunny, gusty winds continued to cause problems and helped Nico Hulkenberg into the wall at turn 1 early in the session. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was also sidelined with a gearbox issue.
After the earlier wet and exceptionally windy opening practice of the weekend, the weather was somewhat improved for FP2 with no rain, some sunshine and a dry track greeting the drivers - although the wind continued to blow, making things difficult at the exposed circuit.
Everyone was quick to get to work, as this is likely to be the only fully dry track time before Sunday's race with tomorrow's weather looking somewhat troubled. Having been slowest in FP1, Alpine's Pierre Gasly was on hard tyres at the head of the queue to depart pit lane when the lights went green; with the exception of Alex Albon in the Williams, everyone else was straight on to the mediums.
The rush of traffic meant there was some immediate jockeying for position between George Russell, Logan Sargeant and Valtteri Bottas, the Sauber driver having sat out first practice in favour of Ferrari reserve Robert Shwartzman. Oscar Piastri was quick to return to pit lane, complaining about an issue with his visor, but that was soon taken car of by the McLaren pit crew..
Local hero Max Verstappen delighted his fans by moving clear of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez with a time of 1:12.131s. Perez subsequently left his braking too late and ran off at Tarzan but he was far from alone to have problems. Having run off into the gravel exiting turn 8 on his first push lap, Russell was soon up to third with morning pace setter Lando Norris posting a time sufficient for P4, but quicker times were already coming in from Albon, RB's Yuki Tsunoda, and Piastri.
Verstappen's attempt to push on was thwarted when he got caught out by the blustery winds on the corner exit leaving him fighting to keep the car on the track. Charles Leclerc also locked up into turn 1 in a similar manner to Perez but these had been minor incidents with the drivers able to get back underway. It was a different story for Nico Hulkenberg who lost the rear of the Haas and spun into the gravel at turn 1, the cause proving a puzzle to driver and team alike and eventually ascribed to an unfortunate gust of wind.
That triggered a six minute red flag while the beached car was retrieved. Just before the stoppage, Hamilton had gone top with a time of 1:11.833s putting him almost three tenths ahead of Verstappen who was now itching to get back out on the soft tyres once the track went green again. That put him back on top but Norris had the same idea and went 0.025s quicker on his own soft-shod run. By contrast Perez was six tenths behind on the same compound.
Piastri was next to take charge with a time of 1:10.763s, two tenths ahead of Norris. Then it was Mercedes' turn, Russell going quicker by six hundredths while Hamilton was just behind Piastri in P3. There had also been top ten-worthy runs from Tsunoda, Fernando Alonso, Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc leaving Albon in P10 ahead of Stroll, Perez, Ricciardo and Gasly.
Norris and Verstappen had seen enough on the softs and resumed distance runs on the mediums, Norris showing notably strong form with the new McLaren upgrades. The other drivers also switched back, meaning little change in the top times was evident in the final 20 minutes. Nor were there any further significant on-track issues, although there were citations for unsafe release on pit lane for Albon into the path of Lance Stroll and for Ricciardo right in front of Zhou Guanyu, among several to be assessed after the session. Albon and Ricciardo subsequently had some spicy wheel-to-wheel action in the final minutes, as did Leclerc and Perez, while Piastri finished the session with a flourish by passing Gasly.
Finishing at the bottom of the timing screens with curtailed runs and consequent diminished number of completed laps in the books were Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg. The Ferrari had suffered a terminal gearbox issue that will need repairing overnight in what had been a disappointing day for the Scuderia.
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