F1 Today | Antonelli lays down a marker at Spa as Verstappen camp spotted at McLaren

Friday's second practice session at Spa-Francorchamps proved to be an eventful one, with two red flags disrupting the running and leaving teams with less track time than planned. The first interruption came after gravel was dragged onto the racing line in the opening minutes, while the second followed Pierre Gasly's crash, which left his Alpine stranded on track without its rear wing.

Once the session resumed, Kimi Antonelli emerged as the benchmark with a 1:45.944, the only driver to dip below the 1:46 mark, while Lando Norris finished closest to the Italian. Max Verstappen backed up his FP1 pace with third, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Isack Hadjar.

Elsewhere, Racing Bulls continued to impress by placing both Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson inside the top 10, whereas Ferrari endured a more challenging afternoon, with Charles Leclerc missing out on the top 10 despite Hamilton securing fourth. Mercedes also experienced mixed fortunes, as George Russell finished well adrift of teammate Antonelli in eighth. Aston Martin, meanwhile, remained towards the back of the field, with both drivers ending the session more than five seconds off the fastest time.

Jos Verstappen and Raymond Vermeulen visited McLaren's hospitality during Friday's action at Spa-Francorchamps. Their visit had nothing to do with Max Verstappen and was instead focused on McLaren junior Dries Van Langendonck.

The young talent was recently announced as the newest member of Verstappen Racing and is now being supported by Verstappen and his management team alongside his existing place in the McLaren Driver Development Programme.

GPblog can confirm that Verstappen and Vermeulen had a meeting with the fifteen-year-old Belgian. Because the youngster remains part of McLaren's junior structure, the team's hospitality provided the natural venue for the discussions. Verstappen's future was not on the agenda.