REPORT: Lewis Hamilton fastest in FP2 at the Spanish Grand Prix
F1 News
- Toby McLuskie
Lewis Hamilton has topped the timings of FP2 at the Circuit de Catalunya, following suit from last year. The Brit finished ahead of his teammate Valtteri Bottas in second and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in third. It was a strong session for Alpine and AlphaTauri, who claimed fourth through seventh, ahead of Carlos Sainz in eighth. Red Bull had a poor session, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez only managing to find themselves ninth and tenth.
Mercedes duo on top and Red Bull struggle
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were both once again on top of the timings in FP2, with Hamilton topping his teammate with a lap time of 1:18.170. After a successful weekend in Portimao last week, the Mercedes duo seems to be in the same boat once again. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were unable to find the pace to put out similar lap times to the German team and were only able to best a ninth and tenth place respectively, with the Dutchman being 0.615 seconds off Hamilton. Could this be a ploy from Red Bull to prepare for tomorrow's action? However, with the driver pairing sitting on top of the grid already, the weekend is looking good for Mercedes.
Alpine and AlphaTauri strongest in midfield in FP2
Alpine have, once again, managed to find themselves at the top of the timing charts with both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon having strong performances in FP2. The Frenchman topped his teammate in fourth, with Alonso in fifth, with a lap time of 1:18.466. Last weekend was a 10-point weekend for the French team and they will undoubtedly be looking for a similar amount of points come Sunday! AlphaTauri also looked strong throughout the whole session, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda running within the top 10 for a large time of the session. They finished in sixth and seventh respectively.
Ferrari also had the pace to compete with Mercedes. Leclerc sitting in third place come the chequered flag and Sainz was only 0.504 seconds behind Hamilton, showed the strength that the Prancing Horse had today.
Quiet session for McLaren and midfield
FP1 was a strong session for Lando Norris and McLaren, but it was a different story in the second practice session of the day. The young Brit only managed to best the 12th place in the hour-long session this afternoon, with a lap time of 1:19.092. Daniel Ricciardo was 14th fastest in FP1 this morning, 10 places behind his teammate. The Australian struggled once this afternoon, managing to only find himself in P15, one worse than FP1.
Aston Martin had a strong start to the session with Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll finding themselves within the top 5, but as the hour-long session moved on, the driver pairing were unable to find any pace and finished in 11th and 14th.
Alfa Romeo had a very quiet day, with the main action coming from a pit-lane altercation with Nikita Mazepin! Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi were unable to find the pace needed to get anywhere near the top ten and finished in 13th and 16th respectively.
Williams and Haas at the bottom
George Russell, Nicholas Latifi, Mick Schumacher and Mazepin were all at the bottom of the grid once again and were unable to find any pace to move up the timing standings! It will be interesting to see how the Williams competes tomorrow, following their superb qualifying session last weekend!