Valtteri Bottas moved four-tenths clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes continued to lead at the French Grand Prix.
As teams conducted the usual lower fuel runs on the soft compound tyres, the ability to produce a clean lap proved crucial and the Finn did that better, taking P1 with a 1m30.937s.
Hamilton’s flying lap attempts were disrupted by a half spin at Turns 3 and 4, leaving him second.
Not only that, the Briton faces an investigation for unsafely re-entering the track after a near-collision with Max Verstappen, which saw the Dutchman slide off the track.
Ironically, the same offence Sebastian Vettel was penalised for in Canada.
As for the competition, Ferrari sat third and fourth with Charles Leclerc ahead of his teammate once again. The two-thirds of a second deficit to Mercedes is a worrying sign, however.
The big surprise of the day continued to be McLaren with Lando Norris in fifth ahead of Verstappen and teammate Carlos Sainz seventh ahead of Pierre Gasly.
A possible concern may be engine issues which hampered running, as both Sainz and Norris reported problems while on track.
As drivers struggled for grip, it allowed Alfa Romeo to feature more strongly as Kimi Raikkonen took ninth with Antonio Giovinazzi 11th.
Between them was Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, as the Dane completed the top 10.
The notable team absent was Renault as Daniel Ricciardo was only P12 with teammate Nico Hulkenberg 14th, as the upgrades are yet to show their improvement.
Romain Grosjean’s woes continued as efforts to recover from a morning water leak were hampered by a lock-up which ruined his set of hard tyres.
After that, it was a stream of complaints from the Frenchman as he finished a lowly 17th on the timesheet.
The battle to avoid joining Williams in the Q1 knockout zone looks set to be between the Haas driver, Racing Point and Alex Albon.
The Thai did have a three-tenths gap over what would be the cut-off point in 13th, while Lance Stroll’s hopes of avoiding a 12th straight early bath in qualifying don’t look good after ending P18.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
