@LewisHamilton leads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two in #SpanishGP FP2. #F1

Lewis Hamilton lead a Mercedes one-two in the FP2 session at the Spanish GP in-front of team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 0.139 seconds and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who completed the top three.

In hot and windy conditions at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya during the afternoon session, the second hour-long session was at first lead by Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

The Italian’s 1:20.691 effort was set on the yellow side-walled C2 medium tyres, which all the drivers emerged on for their initial stints in FP2’s opening 15 minutes.

But Giovinazzi’s benchmark from the first minutes was beaten by a flurry of quick times, as Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon jumped ahead with a 1:20.303 and then Bottas’s 1:19.087.

Bottas hit the top of the time-sheets again on a 1:18.419 after a couple of slower laps, with Hamilton off his team-mate by 0.042 and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen 0.366 seconds adrift after his effort on the medium rubber.

FP2 was interrupted at ten minutes in due to the deployment of the Virtual Safety Car after a piece of bodywork had come off Carlos Sainz’ Ferrari when running heavily over the exit kerbs at turn nine leading onto the back straight – so it could be cleared by the marshal.

The brief break followed as the majority of the field returned to the pits ahead of their qualifying simulation runs on the C3 red-marked softer compounds.

The Mercedes duo lead the pack out on the softs, with Bottas in-front of Hamilton.

Both F1 W12’s were slower than they had been in the opening stints on the mediums, but improved on their efforts significantly as the laps went on to improve.

Bottas’s 1:18.309 put the Finn further ahead at the top of the time-sheets, but did not last long as Mercedes team-mate Hamilton completed his flying lap with the quickest time in the third sector to go fastest, posting a 1:18.170.

As the Briton continued to run on the same softs for a stint before long data gathering in the session’s second half began, Bottas was told that Hamilton was using a different engine mode, which the Brackley-based squad said had a 0.1 second difference – with the time between the paring sitting at 0.139 seconds.

Verstappen’s flyer on the softer compounds came a few minutes later as the Mercedes cars, which has become the norm in the shortened FP2 session, and the Dutchman had to deal with more traffic.

The Red Bull driver was narrowly over 0.1 seconds slower than Hamilton in the opening sector and lost just a touch more of a second in the middle segment, but Verstappen then had to catch a scary moment going deep into the revised turn ten.

The Dutchman had to run off the track catching his Honda-powered RB16B, forcing him to abandon his lap in the following corners.

Verstappen continued to run on the softs, but was unable to go faster than he could on the mediums, before switching to race simulations.

Verstappen’s absence from the top efforts left the slot free for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – finishing an impressive 0.165 seconds adrift to Hamilton’s Spanish GP FP2 benchmark with the session’s fastest time in the final sector.

Ocon lead Alpine F1 team-mate and home Grand Prix favourite Fernando Alonso in fourth and fifth places respectively, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finishing sixth and ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda who was seventh.

Ferrari’s Sainz ended the day in P8, with Verstappen’s best effort on the mediums putting his RB16B in ninth, in-front of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, who completed his soft tyre hot lap, but ended up 0.748 seconds off Hamilton’s Spanish GP FP2 time-topper.

Verstappen ended FP2 with a hanging right-side footplate on his front wing, due to damage from running over the kerbs turn eight’s uphill right in the last few tours after the Dutchman completed a pit-stop at the end of his long run.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished in 11th place and ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who took 12th and Alfa’s Giovinazzi taking 13th.

The other Aston Martin AMR21 of Lance Stroll ended the afternoon in 14th and ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who wound up 15th and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen who was 16th.

Williams Racing pairing George Russell and Nicholas Latifi were 17th and 18th respectively and in-front of Haas F1 Team duo Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who brought up the rear.

See the full Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio De Espana 2021 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1086/spain/practice-2.html

You can catch up on the earlier Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio De Espana 2021 Free Practice 1 session report at the link: @ValtteriBottas leads @Max33Verstappen in #SpanishGP FP1 session. #F1

Formula 1 @Aramco #SpanishGP 2021 Preview. #F1 @Circuitcat_eng