There were ominous signs for the rest of the grid as Max Verstappen dominated Friday’s opening session, finishing more than 0.7s clear of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez. Mercedes and Ferrari, who were both well off the pace, hoped that data gathered from running their new upgrades at a traditional circuit for the first time, will enable them to take a step forward this afternoon.
Before the start of FP2 we were informed there was a 10 per cent risk of rain falling during this session, but last weekend’s events in Monaco have taught us the forecasts can’t really be trusted. Perhaps more interestingly, there appears to be an even greater chance of rain during Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race. Given Max Verstappen’s apparent pace, some adverse weather could be useful in spicing things up.
It was a 1:14.999 from Carlos Sainz on the soft tyres on the first run. Charles Leclerc went 0.601s slower moments later to move into second, also on the softs, while everyone else is on the mediums, hards or test compounds. Max Verstappen was third on the test tyres, ahead of Esteba Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg. For comparison, Max Verstappen’s fastest lap in FP1 earlier today was a 1:14.606.
Aston Martin are testing a new front wing in this session in a bid to gain some performance. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were yet to set a proper full beans flying lap, instead running around on heavier fuel. A few moments later, George Russell was not a happy man: he was forced to take evasive action on what appeared to be a fast lap as he came up behind the slow-moving McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
With 38 minutes to go from FP2, this is what we have been waiting for. The Ferrari cars were out there on fresh soft rubber, while everyone else followed suit. Carlos Sainz briefly went fastest on a 1:14.274 on his new softs but Charles Leclerc dispatched him by 0.028s. Amid those quick runs from Ferrari, Carlos Sainz was concerned that he might have done some damage to the floor of his Ferrari by running off track momentarily: “Maybe check the floor, just in case, because I feel like I lost quite a lot of rear on that lap,” the Spaniard said. Given he was only fractionally behind his Maranello team-mate, all would appear to be ok.
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A flurry of laps saw Max Verstappen go into the 1:13s with a 1:13.907, then Nico Hulkenberg in the second had a flyer to go just 0.207s behind in the Haas and Esteban Ocon was third, 0.335s off the Red Bull driver. Behind the Austrian side, it was very difficult to predict the pecking order right now. Lewis Hamilton went purple in the first sector but lost time everywhere else to end up 0.642s behind which puts him eighth. That became ninth when team-mate George Russell moved up to sixth after his Qualy sim.
Fastest final sector from Fernando Alonso and he was back in second place, just 0.170 adrift of Max Verstappen. It was a mixed up pecking order at this stage with Hulkenberg, Ocon, Leclerc, Sainz, Russell, Bottas, Gasly and Hamilton completing the top 10.
After a poor weekend which ended in retirement, Canadian Lance Stroll appeared to be struggling once more in Barcelona. Despite having twice attempted quick laps on soft tyres, he was down in 18th, 1.1s back from leader Max Verstappen and almost a full second behind his Aston Martin team-mate Fernando Alonso. As usual for the final part of second practice, the drivers were completing some long runs to see what the tyre degradation is like. The return of the fast right-hand penultimate corner will only punish the left-front tyre even more. Although Pirelli have brought the hardest compounds to the Spanish GP, tyre wear is likely to be significant.
The good news, for those hoping to see some competitive action throughout the remainder of the weekend, was that Max Verstappen’s advantage was far less significant than it had been in the first practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya earlier today. The same margin that separated him and Sergio Perez in second earlier now covered the top 13 cars.
It looked like Red Bull were going to dominate the weekend after their comfortable one-two in Practice One, but the last 50 minutes had been very promising. Less than one second split Verstappen’s leading time down to Yuki Tsunoda in 17th. Nico Hulkenberg’s third place will give Haas a big confidence boost too, while Alpine are in the mix with Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston Martin once again.
In the final minutes of FP2, we saw some stunning replays showing the bouncing of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari at the final corner. It’s strange that porpoising now feels like a foreign concept after having dominated Formula 1 coverage last season. Let’s hope this is just a one-off here, but it will be interesting to hear what the drivers have to say about it after this session.
Well it was never really in doubt, but Max Verstappen officially completed a Friday practice double at the Spanish Grand Prix. However, the pack are much closer to him than they were earlier today. Fernando Alonso was within 0.2s for Aston Martin in second, while Nico Hulkenberg has taken an eye-catching third for Haas. With no Ferrari or Mercedes representation in the top five, it will be interesting to hear what their drivers have to say about the new upgrades they’ve been using.
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