Lewis Hamilton continued the form that he displayed in the first practice session of the weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix, showing his pace around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya by topping the second practice session of the weekend for Mercedes.
Mercedes secure 1-2 in FP2 in Spain
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes continued their strong performance in the second practice session of the weekend ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, setting the fastest lap of the session with a 1:20.802 – the fastest lap of the race weekend so far. Hamilton was 0.090 seconds faster than Valtteri Bottas, his team mate, marking a Mercedes 1-2 in second practice.
From there down, the results from the session were very similar, with the two Ferrari drivers of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel being third and foruth fastest and the two Red Bull Racing drivers of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo being fifth and sixth. Unlike FP1 however, the gap between Mercedes and Ferrari was smaller, with Raikkonen being only 0.3 seconds slower than Hamilton as opposed to an entire second. Furthermore, Red Bull were also closer, being within a second of Hamilton.
Filling out the fourth row of the grid were the two Renault cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer, being seventh and eighth fastest. Hulkenberg was within a second of the best time of the session while Palmer was just outside of the one second mark.
Felipe Massa ended the session in ninth place for Williams, while Carlos Sainz Jr finished the session in tenth place once again. This weekend Williams, Renault, and Toro Rosso are looking quite evenly matched in terms of performance, so it will be interesting to see who will come out on top in the race on Sunday. Between Renault and Williams, Renault seem to have better pace over the course of one lap, however, on long runs, the Williams seems to have the edge, meaning that a close battle could unfold in the race.
Romain Grosjean was 11th fastest in the session for Haas F1, 1.5 seconds slower than Hamilton and 0.2 seconds faster than the 12th fastest driver, Esteban Ocon for Force India.
Stoffel Vandoorne was 13th fastest in the session for McLaren, getting 36 laps of running and setting a best time of a 1:22.693. Sergio Perez followed him in 14th fastest, 0.029 seconds behind the McLaren.
Kevin Magnussen was 15th fastest in the second Haas, just ahead of Marcus Ericsson for Sauber, with only 0.075 seconds separating the two drivers.
Lance Stroll was next fastest in 17th for Williams, 0.015 seconds faster than Daniil Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso who was 18th.
Pascal Wehrlein ended the session down in 19th place, 2.7 seconds off the pace and 0.5 seconds slower than his Sauber team mate, while Fernando Alonso rounded out the field in 20th place for McLaren after having an engine failure in FP1 earlier in the day.
Results from Practice 2 of the Spanish Grand Prix:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:20.802
- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 120.892
- Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:21.112
- Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:21.220
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1:21.438
- Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, 1:21.585
- Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 1:21.687
- Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:21.992
- Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:22.015
- Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1:22.265
- Romain Grosjean, Haas F1, 1:22.371
- Esteban Ocon, Force India, 1:22.520
- Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:22.693
- Sergio Perez, McLaren, 1:22.722
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1, 1:23.007
- Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:23.082
- Lance Stroll, Williams, 1:23.221
- Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:23.236
- Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, 1:23.599
- Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:24.077
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