Spanish GP: Bottas leads Mercedes 1-2 in second practice

Bottas, who also set the pace in the morning session, was fastest in the early stages when using medium-compound Pirellis, seven tenths faster than Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel and teammate Charles Leclerc then traded top spot as the first frontrunners to use the soft Pirellis, with the latter eventually winning the intra-team battle with a lap 0.088s quicker than Vettel.

But at the halfway mark of the session, Bottas and Hamilton were out and lapping quickly on the softs.

Hamilton initially took first place with a lap of 1m17.410s, only for Bottas to eclipse it with a 1m17.284 on his first flier on softs.

Although Hamilton subsequently improved, it wasn't by enough and he ended up just behind his teammate and a quarter-of-a-second faster than the lead Ferrari of Leclerc.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, who suffered an oil leak in the first session that led to an engine change – fitting the spec 2 engine that was slated to be put in overnight anyway – was fifth fastest and 0.750s down.

He subsequently complained of a loss of power that led to him returning to the pits after completing only 15 laps, although he did return to the track for the final 15 minutes of the session.

Romain Grosjean, driving the upgraded Haas, split the Red Bulls in sixth place after outpacing Pierre Gasly.

Kevin Magnussen was running in the old-spec Haas to allow the team to compare its revised package to the known one, and ended up eighth – two tenths slower than Grosjean.

McLaren driver Carlos Sainz pipped Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat to 10th.

Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen was one of the last drivers to improve during the session, allowing him to jump from 15th to 11th, putting him just ahead of the second Toro Rosso of Alex Albon.

Lance Stroll, who crashed his Racing Point machine at the ultra-fast Campsa right-hander in the morning and drove a car without the latest aero upgrades as a result, was 13th fastest ahead of the Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo.

Lando Norris was 16th, albeit only three tenths off the top 10, and ahead of the second Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi.

Sergio Perez was 18th in the Racing Point, ahead of Williams pair George Russell and Robert Kubica – the latter duo separated by six tenths.

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap
1	Valtteri Bottas		35	1'17.284
2	Lewis Hamilton		35	1'17.333	0.049
3	Charles Leclerc		42	1'17.585	0.301
4	Sebastian Vettel		41	1'17.673	0.389
5	Max Verstappen		30	1'18.035	0.751
6	Romain Grosjean		42	1'18.153	0.869
7	Pierre Gasly		34	1'18.238	0.954
8	Kevin Magnussen		40	1'18.355	1.071
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.		45	1'18.658	1.374
10	Daniil Kvyat		40	1'18.722	1.438
11	Kimi Raikkonen		30	1'18.727	1.443
12	Alex Albon		44	1'18.779	1.495
13	Lance Stroll		33	1'18.839	1.555
14	Nico Hulkenberg		43	1'18.861	1.577
15	Daniel Ricciardo		40	1'18.934	1.650
16	Lando Norris		43	1'19.041	1.757
17	Antonio Giovinazzi		37	1'19.427	2.143
18	Sergio Perez		40	1'19.448	2.164
19	George Russell		38	1'20.191	2.907
20	Robert Kubica		23	1'20.781	3.497
View full results