Lewis Hamilton set the pace as Mercedes led the way again in Practice 2 at the Spanish Grand Prix.

As teams conducted their first qualifying runs under the baking Barcelona sun, lap times were actually slightly slower than the morning with Hamilton a tenth down on teammate Valtteri Bottas’ morning best.

Still, it was enough to be almost three-tenths faster than the Finn in the afternoon and eight-tenths up on Max Verstappen in third.

The pecking order through up a few unexpected results with Daniel Ricciardo repeating his strong single-lap pace in fourth for Renault.

Perhaps the biggest surprise though was Romain Grosjean in fifth for Haas, well ahead of where the American team has featured at any point this season and six-tenths faster than teammate Kevin Magnussen.

There was some rough with the smooth though as the Frenchman suffered an apparent engine issue late in the session, forcing him back inside the garage.

Charles Leclerc was just behind in sixth for Ferrari, followed a group consisting of Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly to round out the top 10, all four covered by less than a tenth.

Two big names missing from the would-be points places was Sebastian Vettel in 12th and Alex Albon in 13th, as both continue to struggle over a single lap.

In the case of the German, he was only less than three tenths behind teammate Leclerc but the six places between them was more about the competitiveness of the midfield.

Albon though was eight-tenths behind Verstappen in the second Red Bull, in a much more worrying signal of the difference between the pair.

Lando Norris will also hope to improve from 14th for McLaren, while Magnussen was down in 16th in the second Haas.

At the back, the two Alfa Romeo’s led the two Williams, with Nicholas Latifi ahead of George Russell as the Briton hit the track for the first time this weekend.

As for the long runs which follow in the final 30 mins or so, Mercedes did appear to have the edge on Verstappen although not by much.

Crucially though, there was also little sign of the blistering from last Sunday, which will no doubt please the German manufacturer with temperatures expected to be pretty consistent for the rest of the weekend.

Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:

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