Valtteri Bottas remained fastest as Mercedes moved to the top of the timesheet in Practice 2 in Barcelona.
Completing the first qualifying simulations of the weekend on the soft compound tyre, the Finn posted a 1m17.284s to lead teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.05s.
This after the Briton had looked quick on the hard tyre in his first run but slides at key moments stopped him completing a representative time.
For Ferrari, it was once again Sector 3 that proved their main weakness. Charles Leclerc was three-tenths down in third, just ahead of Sebastian Vettel thanks to an improvement on his second timed lap.
Red Bull appear to have a battle on their hands with Haas for the final top six places, as the four cars were covered by 0.3s between P5 and P8.
Max Verstappen would head the little group and will expect to pull away come qualifying, but the American team is certainly showing signs of coming out of their recent slump.
Also in the midfield, Carlos Sainz continues to look strong in ninth for McLaren, with Daniil Kvyat making the top 10 for the second straight session for Toro Rosso.
Further down, Kimi Raikkonen made progress after a disappointing morning to claim P11, while Renault slipped back to a lowly P14 and P15 for Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo respectively.
Lando Norris also disappointed in P16 for McLaren but was only four-tenths slower than Sainz up in ninth as the midfield remained very close.
Bringing up the field, the gap which had looked closer between Williams and the rest in the morning would grow again, with George Russell eight tenths behind Sergio Perez in 19th.
The Briton though would be half a second clear of teammate Robert Kubica, however.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
