Hamilton and Bottas lead the free practice in Catalonia

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas have been fastest in the second free practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix of Formula 1, in the circuit of Barcelona-Catalonia. The Mercedes have finished ahead of the Ferrari of Räikkönen and Vettel.

The second practice session has made clear that Mercedes is one step ahead in terms of qualifying pace over Ferrari, their main rivals.

The session has shown that when the Ferrari became leaders, Mercedes immediately responded. This fact has happened in the first laps with a medium tire, in which Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) got the best time with a 1:23.0, faster than Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – with problems in the RACC chicane.

With just one hour to go, Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) has reacted with the soft tires, but all his rivals have improved him, leaving the German in fourth place to 4 tenths of Hamilton, who has set the fastest time with this compound. Finish Bottas and Räikkönen have completed the top three.

The last 30 minutes have been devoted to the simulation of race pace. In this period, we have seen Sergio Perez (Force India) standing at the end of the pit lane, causing the red flag, which has also been used to remove the broken wings of Carlos Sainz on Turn 9.

The other local driver, Fernando Alonso, has been riding for a very short time after this morning’s problems. The Spaniard finished last after not running fast at any time with the soft compound.

Results: