» Advantage Mercedes in Spain

Championship leader Valtteri Bottas stayed on top of the practice timesheets as Friday’s Spanish Grand Prix action drew to a close. The Finn, who was the quickest driver in Friday’s opening practice session, narrowly outpaced Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by less than five-hundredths of a second.

The Silver Arrows’ eventual margin over arch rivals Ferrari – which had the fastest car at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in pre-season testing – ended up being three-tenths of a second by the end of the session, although both teams’ drivers took turns at the top of the timing screens during the 90 minutes of running.

Charles Leclerc was the quicker of the Ferrari duo, finishing 0.301 seconds off Bottas’ pace. Teammate Sebastian Vettel was fourth-fastest, although the German would no doubt have been higher up the order were it not for him running wide into the gravel at the exit of Turn 12 on what was looking to be his quickest lap of the session.

After losing some track time in FP1 with an oil leak, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen ended the session fifth-fastest in his Honda-powered RB15, albeit with his fastest lap over three-quarters of a second off Bottas’ best time. Teammate Pierre Gasly finished seventh-fastest.

The Haas team looks to have shrugged off a rocky start to its 2019 campaign and showed a much quicker turn of speed thanks to a number of upgrades to its VF-19 chassis. Having run the new parts in FP1 and declared his car “pretty much brand new”, Romain Grosjean looked impressive and was sixth-fastest with a time just 0.869 seconds off the ultimate pace. Teammate Kevin Magnussen had his first outing with the new aerodynamic parts and was eighth-quickest, although the Dane had a better lap ruined when he was held up by Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz Jr looks set to continue his run of scoring points in every Grand Prix he has contested on home soil, putting his McLaren in ninth on the timesheets ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

The session was largely incident-free, with perhaps the biggest moment coming from Williams’ Robert Kubica who lost the back end of his car on cold tyres as he accelerated away from the chicane and found himself sliding sideways across the pit entry. He and teammate George Russell once again finished as the slowest runners in the session.

FORMULA 1 EMIRATES GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2019 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:17.284		35
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:17.333	+ 0.049	35
3.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:17.585	+ 0.301	42
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:17.673	+ 0.389	41
5.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:18.035	+ 0.751	30
6.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:18.153	+ 0.869	42
7.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:18.238	+ 0.954	34
8.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:18.355	+ 1.071	40
9.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:18.658	+ 1.374	45
10.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:18.722	+ 1.438	40
11.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	1:18.727	+ 1.443	30
12.	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:18.779	+ 1.495	44
13.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:18.839	+ 1.555	33
14.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:18.861	+ 1.577	43
15.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:18.934	+ 1.650	40
16.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:19.041	+ 1.757	43
17.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	1:19.427	+ 2.143	37
18.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:19.448	+ 2.164	40
19.	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:20.191	+ 2.907	38
20.	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:20.781	+ 3.497	23