Spanish GP: Charles Leclerc fastest as Hamilton finishes third in practice 2

• Charles Leclerc set the fastest time for Ferrari in both sessions of the Friday’s  Formula One Spanish Grand Pix
• Lewis Hamilton seemed happy to finish position three, while his teammate George Russell finished second in the second session
• Max Verstappen, the World Champion, finished position five behind Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz
• Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc now leads with 104 points on the drivers’ standings grid, while Lewis Hamilton is in position six with 39 point 

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was fastest in the Spanish Grand Prix practice on Friday, with Mercedes’ George Russell the Formula One’s star Lewis Hamilton second and third, respectively.

Ferrari made changes to close the wide gap with rival Red Bull, which has won the last two races with the defending world champion Max Verstappen, and Scuderia appeared to be working pretty well.

Lewis Hamilton finished P3 in the second session of practice two. Photo: Planetf1

In the late afternoon sunshine, Leclerc set the fastest time of a single minute 19.670 seconds on the fast, soft tyres.

while Russell 0.117 finished slower, also on the soft compound, and the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton managed 0.204 off the pace.

Hamilton, who in the all the previous races struggled to tame the bouncing W13, appeared to be comfortable this time with no porpoising issues

In the first session, Leclerc finished in 1:19.828 seconds, with Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz 0.079 seconds slower than him and Verstappen third.

Sainz was in position four in session two, and the Dutch driver finished fifth.

Sebastian Vettel finished eighth in the heavily modified Aston Martin AMR22, closely ahead of Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine, with Mick Schumacher rounding out the top ten for Haas.

Pierre Gasly, who made complaints of getting side to side every time he touched the accelerator on his AlphaTauri, appeared to be hampered by suction issues.

But he did manage to get the car under control enough to take P11 ahead of Hass’ Kevin Magnussen’s, with Arston Martins Lance Stroll 13th ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunodaon, while Leclerc has two.

Russell finished position four in the first session, while Hamilton finished sixth. Alpine’s two-time world champion Alonso finished positions five and six in both sessions.

McLaren had a challenging session, with Daniel Ricciardo failing to get a soft tyre run until late in the session and finishing 15th.

At the same time, Lando Norris was forced to miss a portion of FP2 after leaving the track at Turn 9 and causing damage to his floor.

Even after his early stoppage, Bottas managed to beat his teammate to 16th – Zhou Guanyu had given up the early in the afternoon session. 

Spanish Grand Prix 2022. Photo: F1

Ferrari has also received its first massive season improvement, the centrepiece of which is a new surface.

In contrast, Red Bull has continued their program of removing mass from its car in an attempt to reduce it to the minimal level weight limit.

 Red Bull has shed an additional 4kg – equal to around 0.14secs in lap time 

The Aston Martin has newly designed bodywork that looks remarkably similar to the Red Bull, which has sparked an off-track controversy.

 Alfa Romeo as well as McLaren both received significant upgrades, although less serious ones; however, they didn’t have a better day.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc now leads with 104 points on the drivers’ standings grid, while Lewis Hamilton is in position six with 39 points