Lewis Hamilton said he felt “good” after taking first place in second practice at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on Friday.
Five different teams occupied the top five positions in Practice 2, with Hamilton leading Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz by 0.022 seconds and 0.055 seconds by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Mercedes was in contention for the win in Canada for the first time this year and continued its strong showing in Spain, a track with a variety of corners that tested every aspect of the car.
“P1 was just so-so. We learned a lot from that session and P2 felt a lot better. We made some good changes to the car and felt good today,” said Hamilton.
“It’s a very hot track and the tires are very demanding, especially in the long run. I don’t feel like we’re too far off. I won’t necessarily put a big emphasis on lap times.
“I think the car is definitely in a better position and I think we have some work to do overnight to make sure we can hold off the Red Bulls, Ferraris and McLarens.
“Everyone at the factory has been working hard, as they do every year. But (we) have more of a north star and a much better understanding of where we want to go with the car and the incremental steps we have taken.”
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Ride with Lewis Hamilton as he sets the fastest lap during Friday’s practice session at the Spanish Grand Prix.
George Russell was eighth fastest, just half a second off his Mercedes team-mate, but he delivered the most important moments of this year’s qualifying and is not worried about the gap to Hamilton.
Russell said Mercedes has the best long-distance running speed, which bodes well for Sunday’s race, but he expects Red Bull to improve.
“I feel good,” he said. “The car is performing well on this circuit. We definitely need to look at it more closely, but Lewis’ top of the timesheet was really good to see. The medium tires felt really strong.
“We moved up from first place at the fastest rate in a long period of time. It’s only Friday, but it’s been a while since we’ve been consistently at the top.
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Toto Wolff has shut down rumors that Lewis Hamilton’s car is being sabotaged, saying online abuse needs to stop.
“I think we were probably fastest by a long shot and we weren’t that fast at low fuel quality speeds, but our quality speeds this afternoon looked really strong.
“It feels good, it’s exciting. This is what we’ve been pursuing for a long time. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Lewis did a great job and did a great lap.
“We always knew that if we got into qualifying, the Red Bulls would win, Max would get there, the McLarens were fast, Carlos was fast, so we would have a good fight.”
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Yuki Tsunoda avoids hitting George Russell during the first practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen never gives up anything
Red Bull was expected to have an advantage at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya because the track is more common and theoretically exploits the car’s aerodynamic strengths.
But championship leader Max Verstappen finished fifth in second practice, behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in fourth.
“We just tried a few different setups in P1 and P2. The day itself was a bit more normal with no problems. That’s what we were hoping for and now it’s just about trying to get the car sorted out a bit.” said.
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Max Verstappen explains that Red Bull’s upgrades for Spain were small and that he was happy to have a ‘normal, problem-free session’.
Sergio Perez received a three grid place penalty at the Spanish Grand Prix after driving into the Canadian pits with a damaged rear wing.
Perez had a difficult Friday, finishing 5th and 13th in two sessions. This suggests that Red Bull may only have one car in front given the penalty.
“I started the day well, but in P2 I had a lot of changes and lost track somewhere,” said Perez.
“There’s a lot to analyze. We’ve gone through a lot of changes and researched the car quite a bit to choose the right parts to go into tomorrow.”
Ferrari and McLaren racing towards the pole
Sainz and Norris finished in the top three in both sessions on Friday, with Ferrari and McLaren also showing pace.
Ferrari introduced a new floor and rear end for this weekend’s race, which Sainz says is working well.
“It was a tough Friday for everyone because the track was really slippery. It was quite difficult to put together laps with the wind and high track temperatures so it was honestly a challenge throughout,” he added.
“I think we’re OK for one lap. In the long run, I think we’ll struggle a little bit more like we did here last year, so we’ll see if we can put together a better package, especially on Sunday. For more than one lap, we’re OK.”
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Bernie Collins and Anthony Davidson discuss Ferrari’s car upgrades ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc had a limited run late in P2 as Ferrari made major setup changes to the front suspension.
Leclerc ultimately finished sixth and was not worried about losing track time.
“I found the feeling again in P2. I haven’t quite got it all together and I’m still pretty fast to find it. Overall, it’s a bit of a difficult Friday, but I know where to look for lap times.” I’m not really worried about (Saturday).
“I didn’t do the long runs that I should have done in FP2, but I did a few laps there and there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I have a very clear vision of what I need to do on the car to make it better and (Saturday) ) is sure to take it to the next level.”
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McLaren driver Lando Norris looks back on Friday’s practice session ahead of race day.
McLaren have been consistently fighting at the front since Norris won his first Grand Prix in Miami and this weekend looks set to be no different.
Norris said the warm weather caused the tires to overheat quickly and he expects close practice to continue in qualifying and leading up to the race.
“It’s a great day. It’s never easy in this hot weather. It never feels amazing. The tires overheat very quickly and it’s hard to get everything in the perfect window. The car felt comfortable right from the start,” he said.
“It was close and I’m sure we’ll be close again tomorrow like we were in Canada, so we’ll try to improve the little things. We’re trying to improve a little bit in every area.”
sky Sports F1’s live Spanish GP schedule
Saturday, June 22nd
9:35 AM: F3 Sprint
11:15 AM: Spanish GP Practice 3 (Session starts at 11:30 AM)
1:10 PM: F2 Sprint
2.10pm: Preparing for Spanish GP qualifying
3pm: Spanish GP qualifying
5pm: F1 Academy Race 1
Sunday, June 23
7.45am: F1 Academy Race 2
9am: F3 Feature Race
10:30 AM: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Build-up to the Spanish GP
2 p.m.: Spanish Grand Prix
4pm: Checkered flag: Spanish GP reaction
Formula 1 returns to Europe as the championship moves to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix and the start of a tripleheader. Watch every session of this weekend’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month membership. There is no contract and you can cancel at any time.
