Spain, FP2: Hamilton beats Bottas in second practice session

Verstappen 3rd, Ricciardo 4th

By Franck Drui

14 August 2020 - 16:36
Spain, FP2: Hamilton beats Bottas (...)

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheet in the second practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, beating team-mate Valtteri Bottas by almost three tenths of a second. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third.

In high temperatures, the Mercedes drivers set the pace in the early part of the session with Hamilton taking P1 with a lap of 1:17.960s on the medium tyre. Bottas slotted into P2, though he was running on hard compound Pirelli tyres but shortly before the half-hour mark Verstappen stole seconds from the Finn as he put in a decent lap on the same compound used by Bottas.

With a third of the session gone, the drivers began to make the move to soft tyres for their qualifying simulations. Bottas was the first to make a bid for eventual top stop with a lap of 1:17.170, but Hamilton was close behind and he crossed the line in 1:16.883. It was a marker that would remain in place for the rest of the session.

Third place initially went to Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo but Verstappen eventually edged the Australian by 0.164s to claim P3. However, the Red Bull driver was still 0.8s adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark.

Haas’ Romain Grosjean continued his good word from the morning session, in which he finished sixth, with P5 behind Ricciardo. The French driver’s ended early, however, when he reported a possible power unit issue during his long run.

Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and the Racing Point of Sergio Pérez. Renault’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri Pierre Gasly finished ninth and tenths respectively.

Lance Stroll finished in 11thplace in the second Racing Point, while Sebastian Vettel finished 12th, almost three tenths of a second behind team-mate Leclerc. Alex Albon was 13th in the second Red Bull, almost eight tenths of a second behind his team-mate Verstappen.

Pos.DriverCarTimeLaps
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes W11 1:16.883 37
02 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes W11 1:17.170 38
03 Max Verstappen Red Bull Honda RB16 1:17.704 33
04 Daniel Ricciardo Renault RS20 1:17.868 34
05 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari VF-20 1:18.133 29
06 Charles Leclerc Ferrari SF1000 1:18.147 35
07 Carlos Sainz McLaren Renault MCL35 1:18.214 33
08 Sergio Perez Racing Point Mercedes RP20 1:18.293 39
09 Esteban Ocon Renault RS20 1:18.303 40
10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Honda AT01 1:18.312 40
11 Lance Stroll Racing Point Mercedes RP20 1:18.357 39
12 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari SF1000 1:18.404 36
13 Alex Albon Red Bull Honda RB16 1:18.491 35
14 Lando Norris McLaren Renault MCL35 1:18.506 38
15 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri Honda AT01 1:18.642 39
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari VF-20 1:18.761 36
17 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Ferrari C39 1:18.900 42
18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Ferrari C39 1:18.964 40
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes FW43 1:19.155 32
20 George Russell Williams Mercedes FW43 1:19.391 38

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