On a cool and cloudy day at Spa where track temperatures peaked at just 23 degrees, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen went fastest in FP2 on the P Zero Red soft tyre - but he won't be in contention to start from pole, as his team has already confirmed that he will take some grid penalties on Sunday, along with a few other drivers.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was quickest in FP1.

"Overall it was a good Friday. In FP1 I felt comfortable with the balance of the car. For FP2 we tried some changes which didn't really work as expected and we lost the feeling a bit," said Sainz.

There was intermittent drizzle throughout the day, which resulted in some short runs on the Cinturato Green intermediates as well as the three slick compounds. The majority of running took place on the slick tyres, with the softs setting the fastest time in both sessions.

With smooth new asphalt, remodelled gravel traps, and a high degree of track evolution, there was plenty for the drivers to get used to. The track evolution today makes the performance gaps hard to calculate, but there's currently an estimated gap of around 0.9 seconds between hard and medium, and 0.6 seconds between medium and soft.

Even though the gap between hard and medium seems quite high, this should be seen in the context of the longest lap on the calendar.

Scuderia Ferrari worked through its planned programme with both drivers. Carlos Sainz was quickest in the first session ahead of his team-mate, and in the second one, Charles Leclerc was second fastest overall and Sainz was fifth, but less than three tenths off the Monegasque.

"It feels good to be back in the car after the break. We completed a solid number of laps while running in variable conditions, with rain coming and going in different parts of the track," said Leclerc.

"It's still difficult to determine the pecking order for this weekend, as all teams ran completely different programmes," added Leclerc.

McLaren's Lando Norris was third quickest in Free Practice 2. Norris will take on a grid penalty for a new power unit on Sunday.

"There are a few different parts on the car this weekend, so I think just understanding those and understanding the lower downforce configuration was good," said Norris.

"Obviously having the power unit grid penalties this weekend, we were trying to focus more on the race, rather than qualifying. Today was more about optimisation, which hopefully will pay off more come Sunday but overall, a fairly good day," said Norris.

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FRIDAY P2 TIMES 
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Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:45.507	148.501 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:46.369	0.862
3	Norris		McLaren		1:46.589	1.082
4	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:46.635	1.128
5	Sainz		Ferrari		1:46.649	1.142
6	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:46.893	1.386
7	Alonso		Alpine		1:46.975	1.468
8	Russell		Mercedes	1:47.042	1.535
9	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:47.255	1.748
10	Perez		Red Bull	1:47.346	1.839
11	Albon		Williams	1:47.520	2.013
12	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:47.617	2.110
13	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:47.658	2.151
14	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:47.782	2.275
15	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:47.867	2.360
16	Ocon		Alpine		1:47.944	2.437
17	Magnussen	Haas		1:48.208	2.701
18	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:48.419	2.912
19	Latifi		Williams	1:48.612	3.105
20	Schumacher	Haas		1:49.941	4.434



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FRIDAY P1 TIMES 
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Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap


1	Sainz		Ferrari		1:46.538	147.064 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:46.607	0.069
3	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:46.755	0.217
4	Russell		Mercedes	1:47.396	0.858
5	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:47.437	0.899
6	Albon		Williams	1:47.835	1.297
7	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:48.081	1.543
8	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:48.310	1.772
9	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:48.420	1.882
10	Perez		Red Bull	1:48.474	1.936
11	Latifi		Williams	1:48.485	1.947
12	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:48.672	2.134
13	Norris		McLaren		1:49.470	2.932
14	Alonso		Alpine		1:49.664	3.126
15	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:49.813	3.275
16	Ocon		Alpine		1:50.315	3.777
17	Magnussen	Haas		1:50.982	4.444
18	Schumacher	Haas		1:51.259	4.721
19	Lawson		AlphaTauri	1:52.065	5.527

w/ Pirelli