Spanish GP: Verstappen leads Alonso in tight Practice 2

Max Verstappen continued to set the pace in Practice 2 at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver improved by almost half a second on his FP1 benchmark, setting a 1m14.177s on the soft tyres during the usual low-fuel run.

But after leading teammate Sergio Perez by 0.8s in the first session, Verstappen was only 0.17s faster than Fernando Alonso in P2 for Aston Martin.

Nico Hulkenberg surprised in third in the Haas, within three-tenths of Verstappen and ahead of Sergio Perez in fourth in the second Red Bull.

Esteban Ocon was fifth, in front of the two Ferraris in sixth and seventh as Charles Leclerc joined teammate Carlos Sainz in running the heavily upgraded SF-23 package.

Notably, the new parts appear to have brought back some porpoising after Sainz was seen bouncing on the straight to Turn 10 and through the high-speed final corner.

George Russell also complained of bottoming early on and was the lead Mercedes in eighth. Valtteri Bottas followed in ninth and Pierre Gasly rounded out a top 10 covered by just 0.55s for Alpine.

Lewis Hamilton only managed 11th fastest, with just 0.002s between Oscar Piastri and Zhou Guanyu in 12th and 13th.

Lando Norris claimed 14th, ahead of Kevin Magnussen. After his P4 in FP1, Nyck De Vries slipped back to 16th in FP2 but was still ahead of AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda in 17th.

Lance Stroll finished a full second slower than teammate Alonso in 18th. And the two Williams completed the grid for the second consecutive session, though it was Alex Albon ahead of Logan Sargeant on this occasion.