Hamilton leads another Mercedes 1-2 in F1 Spanish GP FP2
Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton headed teammate Valtteri Bottas in another Mercedes 1-2 during second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Times were fractionally slower than the ones set during the opening practice session on Friday morning, but Mercedes once again dominated proceedings at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Hamilton was the only driver to lap under the 1m17 mark as he posted a 1m16.883s to finish the second 90-minute session 0.267s clear of Bottas, who survived a wide moment at Turn 12.
Like in FP1, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the third-fastest driver, albeit some eight-tenths down on the Mercedes pair.
Just over a tenth behind came Daniel Ricciardo as the Australian continued Renault’s recent impressive one-lap potential to sit fourth.
Fifth went the way of Romain Grosjean, who once again put his Haas inside the top-six, though he did report a loss of power late on in FP2. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc was the only Ferrari driver inside the top 10 runners as he finished a whopping 1.264s off the pace.
Carlos Sainz improved to P7, ahead of the Sergio Perez, who ended his first day back behind the cockpit of F1 machinery for three weeks after contracting COVID-19 as the fastest of the two Racing Point drivers.
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10 positions for Renault and AlphaTauri respectively, with the second Racing Point driven by Lance Stroll 11th.
After enjoying a better morning in his brand-new Ferrari chassis following a nightmarish couple of races at Silverstone, Sebastian Vettel fell back to 12th in the afternoon order.
The four-time world champion was a tenth clear of Alex Albon’s Red Bull, with McLaren’s Lando Norris and AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat 14th and 15th in the timesheets.
Kevin Magnussen was unable to match the sort of pace managed by his Haas teammate as he finished FP2 17th, ahead of the Alfa Romeo drivers which switched positions in the afternoon, with Kimi Raikkonen leading the Swiss outfit’s charge.
The Williams duo once again ended up with the slowest times in practice as Nicholas Latifi edged out George Russell, who returned to the cockpit of his FW43 after Roy Nissany made his F1 debut in FP1.
FULL SECOND PRACTICE RESULTS FOR THE 2020 F1 SPANISH GRAND PRIX.
