Max Verstappen fastest ahead of Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg as Mercedes remain off pace.
Max Verstappen completed a Friday practice double at the Spanish GP as he edged out Fernando Alonso and the impressive Nico Hulkenberg at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
After being seven tenths of a second clear of the field in Practice One, Verstappen stretched his legs once again in Practice Two to be the only driver to dip below 1:14, posting a best time of 1:13.907.
Alonso ensured Verstappen’s advantage was smaller in qualifying trim however, finishing 0.170s off the world championship leader as Aston Martin showed their pace in the afternoon after using the first session to gather data on their upgrades for this weekend.
“We had a good day today,” said Verstappen post practice. “The car was in a good window and of course we will try to fine tune a few things here and there but the short runs and long runs look good. The last two corners are better and more fun to drive, F1 cars feel much better at high speed. I tried to follow a few cars through there as well and it seemed okay, I’m positively surprised by the overtaking opportunities. I still need to look at the data and see how the other cars compare but today was a good day.”
Hulkenberg, driving at the Barcelona circuit for the first time since 2019, was a very impressive third for Haas, only two tenths off Verstappen’s lead time and ahead of Sergio Perez in the sister Red Bull.
Mercedes will need to improve overnight to be involved in the battle for the front three rows on the grid after a disappointing day in the upgraded W14.
Having been more than a second off the pace in the opening session, George Russell could only manage the eighth best time of Practice Two and was 0.485s off Verstappen’s benchmark.
Lewis Hamilton meanwhile was 11th, nearly a further two tenths of a second back, and the seven-time world champion is envisioning a tough ask to get into Q3 on Saturday.
“From the pace that I had today it’s a struggle for me currently to get into the top 10 (in qualifying),” Hamilton said. “Hopefully we’ll do some changes overnight. I think it’s very, very close between us and that middle after P5 back to P10 – it’s really, really close between us all.”