Marko Hanželic
Friday's second practice v Barcelona ended with the best time of day he set Lewis Hamilton. As usual, both Mercedes were top class for themselves. Hamilton is behind the circuit of the racetrack Circuit of Barcelona-Catalonia it took 1: 16,883 minutes and was 0,287 seconds faster than a teammate Valtteria Bottas.
Max Verstappn it again ran more than eight-tenths of a second to lead Hamilton. The driver Red Bull Racing finished second in training on Friday ahead of his former teammate Daniel Ricciard (Renault) and the surprise of training, Romain Grosjean (Haas), who was fifth and managed to set a very good time despite the engine problems.
Charles Leclerc was sixth and was again faster than Sebastian Vettl, who was only twelfth despite the new chassis, 1,5 seconds behind the leading Briton. They also made it into the top ten Carlos Sainz (7./McLaren), Sergio Perez (8./Racing Point), Esteban Ocon (9./Renault) and Pierre Gasly (10./AlphaTauri).
Despite a large backlog in qualifying Max Verstappen does not throw the rifle into the corn: “We are really far behind in one round, but in the long run the difference is not so obvious. The car is nicely manoeuvrable, tire wear can be controlled. Maybe we should use soft ones in the race… ” je Dutchman at the end of the training he communicated to his team by radio. His teammate Alex Albon he was ten places behind him and eventually landed in thirteenth place.
However, apart from transient engine problems at Romain Grosjean, which then resolved almost on their own and a minor trip Valtteria Bottas in the sand, there were no notable incidents, we saw an interesting training that opens up a lot of questions especially about wear of Pirelli tires on the race. Most teams are expected to opt for medium compound tires.
