Ahead of today's second practice session, the air temperature is 22 degrees C, while the track temperature is 36 degrees. It remains bright but with a lot more cloud than earlier.

As a reminder, in terms of updates, Mercedes has a new Diffuser, Floor Edge, Beam Wing, Front Wing and Halo, while Ferrari has a new Front Wing and Rear Wing.

McLaren has a new Rear Wing , Beam Wing and Rear Corner, while Alpine has a new Front Wing, Coke/Engine Cover, Rear Corner, Beam Wing, Rear Wing and Mirror, and RB a new Rear Corner, Beam Wing and Rear Wing.

Stake has a new Mirror, Floor fence, Front wing, Rear wing and Beam Wing, while Haas has a new Rear Wing and Beam Wing.

While most of these are circuit specific upgrades, Haas, Stake and Mercedes are particularly looking at performance improvements in terms of drag reduction.

Red Bull and Aston Martin have no upgrades this weekend.

Max Verstappen set the pace earlier - Red Bull having ditched up grades introduced just last week - the Dutchman over half-a-second ahead of his nearest rival, Oscar Piastri.

Third quickest was Alex Albon, who finished ahead of Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc and Perez.

Having taken on a new ICE, Verstappen will drop 10 places on Sunday which makes it vital that his teammate raises his game.

After taking on a complete power unit, Tsunoda will start from the back of the grid.

It's already proving to be a tough weekend for Alpine, with Ocon sidelined this morning and the French team subsequently announcing that team boss Bruno Famin will depart after the summer. It is also expected that Renault is about to announce its departure from the sport as an engine manufacturer.

The lights go green and Gasly leads the way, followed by Verstappen, Ricciardo, Zhou and Perez.

As more rivers head out, most are on mediums though Zhou and Hulkenberg are on hards while Norris is on softs.

Gasly gets things underway with a 44.594, however Verstappen responds with a 43.456 moments later.

Norris (soft) goes second, 0.115s off Verstappen's (medium) pace, ahead of Piastri, Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Stroll and Albon.

Leclerc (softs) goes fifth with a 44.038, as Hulkenberg and Zhou head out on hards.

"Little bit of rear locking Turn 1," reports Ocon.

Russell improves to third with a 43.738.

Albon suffering understeer at Turns 7, 10 and 12 as Verstappen improves to 43.339.

A 44.665 sees Ocon improve to 13th.

While there is a slight possibility of rain over the next hour, it is almost certain that we'll see a change in conditions tomorrow, which leaves the teams with some difficult choices to make.

"There's a lot of grounding for Norris in Eau Rouge," observes Perez. The McLaren is also riding low, with Hamilton complaining about bouncing this morning.

Sainz and Russell head out on softs, as does Verstappen.

On the red-banded rubber Sainz goes quickest with a 43.098, just 0.241s up on Verstappen's medium pace.

Hulkenberg (softs) goes quickest in S1 as Piastri goes quickest in the second sector. The Australian crosses the line at 42.475 to go top.

Hulkenberg goes seventh with a 43.846 as all bar the Alpine pair are on softs.

Quickest in S2, Verstappen loses time in the final sector and crosses the line 0.002s down on Piastri.

"Just need to check the floor, I turned into a skateboarder at Turn 7," admits Piastri.

Ricciardo goes ninth (43.823) and Tsunoda 14th (44.348).

Stroll goes sixth (43.532), but is demoted when Magnussen posts a 43.485.

Albon complains of "anti-stall or something" in the final corner, but is told it was rear-locking.

Leclerc goes third with a 42.837, 0.362s off Piastri's pace.

Norris crosses the line at 42.260 to leapfrog his teammate by 0.215.

With just over twenty minutes remaining, a number of drivers make the switch to mediums, while others continue on the softs, among them Verstappen and Piastri.

"In FP1 our competitiveness wasn't there," explains Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu, "so we had to make progress, and this is the only dry session so we need to understand the strategy from this.

"We are doing what we are doing, because there is a reasonable chance of a wet qualifying and dry race, so the point of this session is to gather as much data as possible."

Magnussen is currently on softs while his Haas teammate is on hards.

"Something feels strange, broken roll-bar or something," reports Ricciardo.

As the Australian and Leclerc pit, Norris is lapping at 48.3 on the softs, while his teammate bangs in a 47.4.

The session ends. Norris is quickest, ahead of Piastri, Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Russell, Ocon, Magnussen, Perez and Hamilton.

Stroll is eleventh, ahead of Alonso, Bottas, Ricciardo Gasly, Hulkenberg, Albon, Sargeant, Zhou and Tsunoda.

Down in ninth, this isn't a good start for Perez, and while McLaren once again appears to have the edge Verstappen is clearly within reach.

As expected, Mercedes is hurting while Ferrari is looking much stronger than in recent weeks.

However, with rain expected for both sessions tomorrow, the team face a difficult choice in terms of set-up what with a dry race anticipated on Sunday.

Which is surely all the better for us.

Check out our Friday gallery from Spa here.