Ferrari FP2 report: Charles Leclerc P1, Carlos Sainz P4

After Ferrari dominated the first free practice session for the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix at the circuit de Catalunya, we were underway for Practice 2 in Barcelona and a few cars were straight out onto the track.

Max Verstappen straight onto the pace at the start of this more representative session, which saw similar conditions what drivers experience in the race. His first lap was a 1:20.9, just ahead of Carlos Sainz, before Charles Leclerc completed his first run: the Monegasque driver was up on his first lap but had a few wide moments in the final sector and ended that first flier down in third. Just 0.063s was splitting him, teammate Carlos and Verstappen in the early stages of FP2. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were also up there with Mercedes, as everyone was running on the medium tyres.

“The day so far is very tight, very challenging, very tense, very busy. Bring upgrades means a lot of testing. Barcelona is always a very difficult challenge but so far interesting. We can certainly start assessing relative competitiveness within teams and ourselves.” – Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto said, in an interview for Sky Sports during the second free practice session.

In his first qualifying run, Carlos Sainz went under the 1min 20sec mark with a 1:19.990 to go top of the timesheet with just over half an hour to go in P2. However, his time was soon bettered by team-mate Charles Leclerc as Ferrari were carrying on where they left off this morning: the Monegasque driver got the soft tyres on and immediately found a lot of pace, three tenths quicker than Carlos and Verstappen.

Sky Sport’s Martin Brundle was down at Turn 12 to get a closer look of the cars and confirmed that “the Mercedes and the Aston Martins in particular are not as nailed down, they are not as confident in the back of the car. The Red Bulls and Ferraris can hold the tighter line which opens up the entry. It is a really technical part of the final sector and it gets more and more tight then.”

The final 15 minutes of FP2 was marked by race runs all round, giving teams and drivers vital data for Sunday’s race as they load up with fuel. In terms of the Ferrari vs Red Bull battle – and maybe Mercedes, too – this will also give them guidance on tyre degradation, which has played a key role in recent races, with Red Bull much friendlier on their tyres in the Imola and Miami wins.

Charles Leclerc came out on a fresh set of tyres for the final two minutes of this session, as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were sitting in second and third. Mercedes upgrades have been a big talking point so far this weekend and it seems they are working as both cars were fastest on the straights in Barcelona.

Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma! Enter the online Puma Store and shop securely! And get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!

Practice two was over with Charles Leclerc who finished top of the timesheet (1:19.670). George Russell finished just +0.117 behind with Lewis Hamilton +0.204 further back in third.