#F1 #SpanishGP FP2: @LewisHamilton edges @Carlossainz55, @LandoNorris to top time-sheets.

Hamilton Spanish GP FP2 – Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton topped the time-sheets in the afternoon FP2 session at the Spanish GP ahead of home favourite Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris with the top three covered under 0.060 seconds.

Hamilton posted the session-topping benchmark of a 1:13.264 on the C3 red side-walled Soft rubber and was a very slim 0.022 seconds clear of Sainz whilst Norris was a further 0.055 adrift of his fellow British-compatriot in third.

Mercedes’ George Russell lead the way in the early proceedings on the C2 yellow-marked Mediums, having pipped FP1 time-topper Norris’ 1:14.197 to clinch a 1:14.089 as the benchmark for the later qualifying simulation runs.

Sainz then produced the initial flyer on the softer rubber amongst the front-runners, posting a 1:13.286, which was momentarily challenged by Norris, but the Briton only managed to go 0.033 seconds behind his former team-mate.

Championship leader Max Verstappen set the best first and third sectors on his first qualifying simulation run but lost 0.3 seconds in sector two to Sainz’s to fall short of the pairing ahead.

Hamilton then shot his F1 W15 entry to the top of the pile, setting a 1:13.264 thanks to a strong purple sector three, to put the seven-time world champion just two hundredths clear of the Spaniard’s earlier effort.

The attention then switched to the traditional long race data gathering runs, effectively locking in the classification as the drivers and teams sought to assess their cars in race trim.

Sainz and Norris rounded out the top three, all within a very slim 0.055 seconds bracket of Hamilton’s best time. Meanwhile, Verstappen sat in fourth towards the end of the qualifying simulation runs – but was trounced by a surprised effort from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who found an effort good enough to split the Dutchman from the leading trio.

Charles Leclerc was sixth in the order in the other Ferrari SF-24 entry, but largely sat out the longer race runs and opted to work on his car’s suspension settings to extract more pace from his racer.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took seventh and in-front of the second Mercedes F1 W15 entry of Russell who ended FP2 eighth as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team pairing Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished the day 11^th and 12^th in the classification and in-front of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who was 13^th and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who took 14^th in the classification.

RB duo Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were 15^th and 16^th respectively whilst Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu placed 17^th in the order.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll ended the afternoon FP2 session 18^th as both Williams Racing entries of Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio De Espana 2024 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1238/spain/practice-2.html

#F1 #SpanishGP FP1: @LandoNorris quickest ahead of @Max33Verstappen by 0.024s.

#F1 @Aramco #SpanishGP 2024 Preview. #BarcelonaGP #Formula1

TermiOnTrack #F1 Newsbites – June Edition.