Lewis Hamilton leads a Mercedes one-two in practice two for the Spanish Grand Prix

Spanish Grand Prix

Hamilton leads a Mercedes one-two in practice two for the Spanish Grand Prix

Mercedes quick in qualifying trim, but equaled by Red Bull on race pace

Sam Hall

Friday 14 August 2020 16:36

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix but Max Verstappen looks to pose a threat on race pace.

In a reverse of the practice one results, Hamilton topped the order from Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. In the earlier session, the Finn had won out by +0.039 seconds, but practice two saw Hamilton triumph by a margin of +0.287 seconds.

On the race runs, Bottas managed just six laps on his soft tyres before needing to pit for fresh rubber. The tyres did not appear to be as badly worn as those used at Silverstone, but Verstappen completed close to double this number before pitting.

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On qualifying pace, Verstappen had no answer for Mercedes and ended Friday +0.821 off the time of Hamilton.

As well as appearing to be stronger on the tyres, Verstappen was also able to match the pace of the two Mercedes drivers across the range of Pirelli rubber.

Daniel Ricciardo backed up his strong one lap pace from Silverstone with fourth and Romain Grosjean moved up a spot from sixth position in FP1, to fifth in FP2.

Grosjean's Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen could only manage a time good enough for 16th but felt comfortable across him long runs, adding further credence to Guenther Steiner's cautious optimism that Haas could take a strong points haul from the weekend.

At Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel was only three tenths off team-mate Charles Leclerc, but while Leclerc was sixth, the closeness of the midfield order left Vettel languishing in 12th.

Agsin struggling was Alex Albon. The Thai-British driver made a small mistake on his qualifying simulation and ended the session in 13th, eight tenths off his Red Bull team-mate.