Hamilton tops FP2 while Red Bulls recover from difficult FP1 to finish second and third and Räikkönen suffers engine issues

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the second practice session of the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix, while Daniel Ricciardo recovered from an FP1 crash to finish second. His Red Bull team-mate, Max Verstappen, finished third in the Friday afternoon session.

Hamilton set a time of 1min18.259sec – 0.133sec faster than Ricciardo – to top the session after finishing second in FP1.

Sebastian Vettel finished fourth behind the Red Bull pair, but ahead of FP1 leader Bottas. Team-mate Kimi Räikkonen finished sixth, six tenths off the pace with an engine issue.

The first session was calamitous as numerous drivers spun off, particularly around Turns 4 and 13. FP2 was no different, with Haas’ Romain Grosjean (seventh) first to spin off (as he did in the first session), followed by Räikkönen, whose Ferrari billowed smoke after his Turn 4 off.

Haas counterpart Kevin Magnussen continued a strong showing for the squad having finished eighth, ahead of the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne. Sergio Pérez rounded out the top 10, his team-mate closely following in 11^th with Fernando Alonso 12^th.

Pérez stopped late in the session with a suspected loose wheel.

Renault was off the pace in FP1 and showed little improvement in the following session, with Nico Hülkenberg 13^th and his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr 17^th.

Between them were both Saubers and the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly in 14^th while team-mate Brendon Hartley finished 18^th.

The Williams pair of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, who was replaced by Robert Kubica in the first session, rounded out the standings. Kubica told the media that his first FP1 session of the season was a bit of a “shock,” alluding to the difficult conditions as he finished 19^th.

“I felt embarrassed when I was driving inside the car, because it was so difficult, and I felt so slow in some places,” he said.

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Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix FP2 results

1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1min 18.259sec
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1min 18.392sec	+0.133sec
3	Max Verstappen	Ferrari	1min 18.533sec	+0.274sec
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1min 18.585sec	+0.326sec
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1min 18.611sec	+0.352sec
6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1min 18.829sec	+0.570sec
7	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1min 19.579sec	+1.320sec
8	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1min 19.643sec	+1.384sec
9	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1min 19.722sec	+1.463sec
10	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1min 19.962sec	+1.703sec
11	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1min 20.024sec	+1.765sec
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1min 20.035sec	+1.776sec
13	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1min 20.183sec	+1.924sec
14	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1min 20.373sec	+2.114sec
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1min 21.501sec	+2.242sec
16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1min 20.514sec	+2.255sec
17	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1min 20.672sec	+2.413sec
18	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1min 20.265sec	+3.006sec
19	Lance Stroll	Williams	1min 21.556sec	+3.297sec
20	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1min 22.060sec	+3.801sec

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