Spa FP2: Verstappen tops as Red Bull show their hand

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo hogged the top of the timing screens at the end of the second free practice session of the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix weekend

Red Bull, perhaps inadvertently, showing their true pace while Mercedes appeared to keep their powder dry in the afternoon session at Spa-Francorchamps.

Verstappen's best lap time of 1:48.085 had the crowd on their feet as he did his slow-down lap after the chequered flag ended the ninety minutes session. His time was a quarter of a second up on his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo as the energy drinks outfit showed that they will be a force in the Ardennes this weekend.

In FP1 Verstappen finished seventh position, behind Ricciardo. Part of the reason for that was Mercedes’ decision to run the supersoft tyre in FP1, while their rivals chose to stick with tradition and leave their performance runs until the afternoon.

With Mercedes leaving the red-banded tyre alone in session two, the way was clear for Verstappen to push for P1 and the Dutch driver, cheered on by a sizeable contingent of his countrymen in the grandstands, duly set the pace with a time of 1:48.085, 0.263 of a second quicker than Nico Rosberg’s morning timesheet topper.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was half a second further back in third place, ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was fourth quickest 0.938s behind Verstappen.

The four-time F1 world champion split the Force Indias with Sergio Perez in fifth place just over seven hundredths of a seconds behind the German.

After topping the morning session, with a lap set while using the Halo head protection device, Rosberg finished the afternoon session in sixth place. His best lap of 1:49.161 was set on the soft compound tyre.

Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari was seventh quickest with a lap of 1:49.244 and the Finn finished ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean, McLaren’s Jenson Button and the second Haas of Esteban Gutierrez.

Button’s time, using Honda’s new power unit, was encouraging for McLaren after a troubled morning session in which Fernando Alonso managed just three laps.

The Spaniard recovered in the afternoon turning 30 laps with a new power unit to set the 12th fastest time behind the impressive Pascal Wehrlein who set a time of 1:49.716. Alonso’s need for a new power unit means he will take a large grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton ended the session 13th quickest as he only used a prototype soft Pirelli compound tyre.