Charles Leclerc completed a Friday double as he led Practice 2 at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver made a two-tenth improvement on his best time in the first session as he posted a 1m19.670s on soft tyres.
Right behind, the two Mercedes’ once again showed signs of their potential with George Russell second and Lewis Hamilton third.
‘it’s only practice it’s only practice it’s only practice it’s only practice it’s only practice it’s only practice’ ???
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 20, 2022
Carlos Sainz was fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of Max Verstappen as the top five was separated by just a third of a second.
Fernando Alonso backed up his strong FP1 in sixth, while Sergio Perez was seventh in his first outing of the weekend after handing his car to Juri Vips earlier in the day.
Sebastian Vettel was eighth in the upgraded Aston Martin with Esteban Ocon and Mick Schumacher completing a top 10 covered by just over a second.
Further down, McLaren had a tough session with Daniel Ricciardo 15th and Lando Norris only managing six laps before floor damage ended his session early having run wide on the exit kerb at Turn 9.
Norris is pushing hard but still finding his feet in FP2, dipping a toe or two in the gravel #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/HIFe1rVLxS
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 20, 2022
Valtteri Bottas also caused a Virtual Safety Car after pulling over with engine issues in his Alfa Romeo.
AlphaTauri is one of the teams with minimal upgrades this weekend and both drivers slipped out of the top 10 in Practice 2, as Pierre Gasly struggled from a lack of traction.
Like Perez, Zhou Guanyu missed the first session after handing his car to Robert Kubica, and the Chinese driver was unable to beat teammate Bottas’ only flying lap of FP2 in 17th.
At the back, Williams continues to bring up the field as another FP1 absentee Alex Albon returned in 18th, going nine-tenths quicker than Nicholas Latifi in 19th.
The final part of the hour was used for race simulations with tyre degradation seemingly set to play a key role in the race, as drivers struggled to do a lengthy stint on the medium tyres.
As a result, two-stop strategies might be the order of the day in Barcelona, particularly with temperatures set to rise on Saturday and Sunday.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
Here’s how Friday finished ?
Final FP2 standings #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/z5oRBmF9Jc
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 20, 2022