Hamilton Leads FP2 for Spanish GP

By FIA

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheet in the second practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, beating teammate Valtteri Bottas by almost three tenths of a second. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third.

In high temperatures, the Mercedes drivers set the pace in the early part of the session with Hamilton taking P1 with a lap of 1:17.960s on the medium tire. Bottas slotted into P2, though he was running on hard compound Pirelli tires but shortly before the half-hour mark Verstappen stole seconds from the Finn as he put in a decent lap on the same compound used by Bottas.

With a third of the session gone, the drivers began to make the move to soft tires for their qualifying simulations. Bottas was the first to make a bid for eventual top stop with a lap of 1:17.170, but Hamilton was close behind and he crossed the line in 1:16.883. It was a marker that would remain in place for the rest of the session.

Third place initially went to Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo but Verstappen eventually edged the Australian by 0.164s to claim P3. However, the Red Bull driver was still 0.8s adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark.

Haas’ Romain Grosjean continued his good word from the morning session, in which he finished sixth, with P5 behind Ricciardo. The French driver’s ended early, however, when he reported a possible power unit issue during his long run.

Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and the Racing Point of Sergio Pérez. Renault’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri Pierre Gasly finished ninth and tenths respectively.

Lance Stroll finished in 11^thplace in the second Racing Point, while Sebastian Vettel finished 12^th, almost three tenths of a second behind team-mate Leclerc. Alex Albon was 13^th in the second Red Bull, almost eight tenths of a second behind his teammate Verstappen.

2020 FIA Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.883 37 217.967
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:17.170 0.287 38 217.156
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:17.704 0.821 33 215.664
4 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:17.868 0.985 34 215.210
5 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1:18.133 1.250 29 214.480
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:18.147 1.264 35 214.442
7 Carlos Sainz McLaren/Renault 1:18.214 1.331 33 214.258
8 Sergio Pérez Racing Point/Mercedes 1:18.293 1.410 39 214.042
9 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:18.303 1.420 40 214.014
10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:18.312 1.429 40 213.990
11 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1:18.357 1.474 39 213.867
12 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:18.404 1.521 36 213.739
13 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1:18.491 1.608 35 213.502
14 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1:18.506 1.623 38 213.461
15 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 1:18.642 1.759 39 213.092
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:18.761 1.878 36 212.770
17 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:18.900 2.017 42 212.395
18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:18.964 2.081 40 212.223
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:19.155 2.272 32 211.711
20 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:19.391 2.508 38 211.081