» Mercedes ends Friday on top in Spain

The Mercedes-AMG team once again trounced the field as Friday practice for this weekend’s Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix drew to a close.

After being pipped to the top of the timesheets in FP1 by teammate Valtteri Bottas, this time it was Lewis Hamilton who turned the tables to claim the fastest overall time of the 90-minute session. The championship leader finished just over a quarter of a second quicker than the Finn, albeit with a time that was one-tenth of a second shy of Bottas’ FP1 effort.

Repeating his form from the morning’s session, Max Verstappen was the fastest of the non-Mercedes runners in third, however the Dutchman was a hefty eight-tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark time. There was a similar gap to his teammate Alexander Albon, who was a disappointing P13 in the session thanks to a mistake on his qualifying-style run at Turn 5.

Having languished in P18 in FP1, Daniel Ricciardo showed that the Renault has plenty of potential by claiming the fourth-fastest time in FP2, less than two-tenths slower than Verstappen’s best lap.

Romain Grosjean proved that his FP1 pace was no fluke, hustling his Haas Ferrari to fifth-quickest in the American team’s most competitive showing of the season. The Frenchman appeared bewildered by the team’s marked improvement in form, although his session was later cut short in the closing minutes when a mechanical issue reared its head.

His teammate Kevin Magnussen was unable to unlock the same sort of one-lap pace, languishing in P16 and six-tenths of a second adrift.

Ferrari found itself outperformed by one of its customer teams, with Charles Leclerc only able to manage sixth-fastest. Having run close to the Monégasque driver in FP1, teammate Sebastian Vettel was twelfth on the timesheets – albeit just a quarter of a second slower in a tightly bunched midfield.

Carlos Sainz got to grips with his new McLaren MCL35 chassis to go seventh-fastest ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez, with Renault’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly completing the top ten.

FORMULA 1 ARAMCO GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2020 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:16.883		37
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:17.170	+ 0.287	38
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:17.704	+ 0.821	33
4.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:17.868	+ 0.985	34
5.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:18.133	+ 1.250	29
6.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:18.147	+ 1.264	35
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:18.214	+ 1.331	33
8.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:18.293	+ 1.410	39
9.	Esteban Ocon	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:18.303	+ 1.420	40
10.	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:18.312	+ 1.429	40
11.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:18.357	+ 1.474	39
12.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:18.404	+ 1.521	36
13.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:18.491	+ 1.608	35
14.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:18.506	+ 1.623	38
15.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:18.642	+ 1.759	39
16.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:18.761	+ 1.878	36
17.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:18.900	+ 2.017	42
18.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:18.964	+ 2.081	40
19.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing FW43	1:19.155	+ 2.272	32
20.	George Russell	Williams Racing FW43	1:19.351	+ 2.508	38