Spanish Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Hamilton tops the timesheets

In the mix during FP1, the Mercedes raised their game this afternoon by setting very competitive times with the medium tires. After 20 minutes of the session, it was George Russell who was at the top of the timesheet with a time of 1:14.089.

Logan Sargeant started the session with a little scare at turn two where the back of his car slightly got loose coming out of the corner. Luckily, he managed to keep it on track. If, for the first time in months, he approaches the weekend with the same number of spare parts as his teammate, it would be a shame to betray his team’s trust and put the car into the wall. Ultimately, the American is under so much pressure that nothing could really be synonymous with serenity.

The Williams drivers were the first to put on the red-striped tires. James Vowles’ team is one of the few, along with Mercedes, McLaren, and Alpine, not to have brought any upgrades. The Barcelona circuit with its long corners requiring a car with good aerodynamic qualities should not allow the Williams drivers to fight for points during the race. The FW46 is a car that performs better on tracks with slow corners. A characteristic that allowed Alexander Albon to secure 9th place in Monaco.

Surprisingly, despite not having touched the car since Miami, Alpine seems to be understanding and adjusting their machine better and better. The second part of this FP2 session was smiling at Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon. The former was placed in an abnormal but welcome fourth position while his teammate held the 9th best time.

At a circuit where Red Bull are announced as the favorites, Sergio Perez failed to dispel the doubts and criticisms surrounding the extension of his contract. On stints with soft tires, the Mexican was more than 6 tenths slower than his garage neighbor. A situation that becomes more worrying as the former Force India driver accumulates more and more delay on Max Verstappen, from the very beginning of the weekends now.

At the end of this second Free Practice session under the Catalan sun, Red Bull’s opponents defied expectations and positioned themselves at the front, without Red Bull to accompany them. Amid a full-blown conspiracy theory storm where there are talks of favoritism at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton kept a cool head and set a time of 1:13.264, making him the holder of the best time of the session. This performance confirms the benefits of the improvements made by the German team in recent weeks.

The Top 3 of the session is completed by the national hero, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. The two former teammates are relegated to just a few thousandths of the seven-time world champion.

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls and Ferrari, the two Italian teams on the grid, are the ones that have brought the most new parts. The first must ensure that it remains competitive to stay as the 6th force in the hierarchy, and the second must continue to put pressure in the development race against its rival teams: Red Bull and McLaren. During his interviews on Canal+, Laurent Mekies, the director of Racing Bulls, revealed that his team was having some difficulties finding an effective balance on the VCARB 01. Yuki Tsunoda complained about the front-end rotation of his car. This announces a gloomy Grand Prix for Red Bull’s sister team.

Losing momentum for a few weeks now, the Canadian Grand Prix appears at the end of this Friday to be a magical interlude in an otherwise lackluster season. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are stuck in the middle of the pack in 14th and 18th position. It seems unlikely that the Spanish double world champion will perform any miracles on home soil.

Table of FP2