Max Verstappen set the fastest time in the second free practice in Spain, as he did in the first practice. Fernando Alonso set the second time and Nico Hulkenberg surprisingly finished third for the Haas team.
In the first practice session, Verstappen still had a gap of more than three-quarters of a second to the competition, but in the second practice session the competition came a lot closer. Alonso followed just under two tenths, followed by Hulkenberg with a gap of just under three tenths. Sergio Perez got no further than fourth place. The Ferrari's conceded over three tenths to the Dutchman.
Mercedes seems to be having a tough time in Barcelona. The team has put a lot of upgrades on the car in the last races, but did not get beyond a P8 and P11 in the second practice session. Nyck de Vries was still fourth in the first practice, but did not get further than P16 in the second practice. The Dutchman was faster than his teammate though.
Full results VT2
Source: Formula1.com
Id love to see Albon higher up, wonderful lad, I estimate his capabilities much much higher than 19th. Come on Alexander, show us what you are made of.
Looks like the package MB introduced in Monaco isnt working in the race circuits.
We will know in the race. Practice sessions rarely give the true picture.
True since MB lately are off during FP1 and 2 only to come back during Qualys after they fine tuned their setup but early indications are not positive at the moment.
Sure, I get that. We don't know what they are testing, but would you be going in there not wanting to show what the car is capable of? In Merc position, now is the time to show you are getting back on top. Transforming the cross eyed donkey into a stallion. The fans sure would love to see that. Why consciously miss the opportunity to send a strong signal that you again are a force to be reckoned with. For long stint data? Full tank performance? Lewis hitting the gravel tells me otherwise. Two donkey eyes and I can't tell which one is looking at me.
He makes mistakes and sometimes the car is good but he cant get the lap in. That is why I dont trust what he is saying. Sometimes he bluffs and sometimes he just blames the car when its the driver. In Monaco, in q2, he made a mistake and blamed the damaged suspension and in the next run he put in his best lap. So what you see is not what you get. Only after seeing the data, which is only available to merc engineers, will you be able to deduce the truth
Well done to NH, and FA, great lap times, really shows they are driving out their socks to get that close to the RB19. Looking forward to tomorrow.
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