Lewis Hamilton clocks the fastest time in Practice Two of the Spanish Grand Prix

In a thrilling Practice Two session at the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets with a blistering lap time of 1:13.264. The closely-matched top three featured Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz just 0.022s adrift in second place and McLaren’s Lando Norris a mere 0.055s off the pace in third.

The session showcased the increasing competitiveness across multiple teams at the forefront of Formula 1, with each of the top teams – Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren – securing a single car in the tightly contested top three.

Despite his dominance at the circuit last year, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could only manage fifth place, 0.240s behind the leader. This unexpected positioning was emphasized by the fourth-place finish of Pierre Gasly for Alpine, making for an enthralling opening day at Barcelona.

Verstappen encountered challenges with his car’s balance, particularly in the rear, during his medium-tyre run. This issue seemed to persist as the field switched to the softer compound, preventing the Red Bull driver from matching the outright pace of the leading trio.

Even with his three-place grid penalty from the previous race, Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez could only muster 13th place, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished sixth. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri claimed seventh, and Mercedes’ George Russell, who previously set the pace on medium tyres, settled for eighth after encountering traffic during his soft-tyre run.

With the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosting the initial leg of a triple-header of race weekends, there was much anticipation regarding the continuation of the multi-team battle witnessed in the unpredictable last race in Canada. Despite predictions of a return to Red Bull’s dominance at the circuit, Friday’s warm and sun-drenched session suggested otherwise.

Verstappen, despite experiencing setup experimentation, appeared unperturbed by the day’s events when discussing his performance after the session.

Spanish GP Practice Two Timesheet

Driver	Team	Time
1) Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:13.264
2) Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+0.022
3) Lando Norris	McLaren	+0.055
4) Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+0.179
5) Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+0.240
6) Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+0.333
7) Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+0.358
8) George Russell	Mercedes	+0.458
9) Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+0.502
10) Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	+0.660
11) Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+0.757
12) Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+0.789
13) Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+0.817
14) Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+0.827
15) Yuki Tsunoda	RB	+0.947
16) Daniel Ricciardo	RB	+0.993
17) Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	+1.081
18) Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+1.138
19) Alex Albon	Williams	+1.543
20) Logan Sargeant	Williams	+1.806