Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
Formula 1 Spanish GP

F1 Spanish GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2

Track overview

Live Standings

Stopped

Summary

    • Hamilton tops the times in FP2 by 0.139s from Bottas ahead of the Spanish GP
    • Verstappen runs wide at Turn 10 on soft tyre run, down in P9
    • Leclerc puts Ferrari in third ahead of Alpine pair Ocon and Alonso
    • Brief Virtual Safety Car after Sainz suffers front wing damage
    • Bottas fastest in FP1 from Verstappen and Hamilton
  • Leaderboard
    1. Hamilton, Mercedes
    2. Bottas, Mercedes
    3. Leclerc, Ferrari
    4. Ocon, Alpine
    5. Alonso, Alpine
    6. Gasly, AlphaTauri
    7. Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
    8. Sainz, Ferrari
    9. Verstappen, Red Bull
    10. Perez, Red Bull

Live Text

Sort by
Newest first
That's us wrapping up today - we'll catch you tomorrow for FP3 and qualifying. Over and out.
Breaking news
And here's your session report. Despite earlier messages to the contrary, you should definitely read it - as it was a really exciting session and not at all dull: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/spanish-gp-fp2-report/6504199/
If sprint races are good for anything, it's to save us from the drudgery of FP2 sessions.
So, it's Hamilton from Bottas in that session - a reverse of FP1. Leclerc was third, ahead of Ocon and Alonso, with Gasly and Tsunoda in sixth and seventh ahead of Sainz. Verstappen and Perez completed the top 10.
 
Checkered flag
And that's your lot for FP2. I'm going to grind some coffee after that - 'twas a bit of a snorer.
Verstappen just popped in and out of the pits, returning - unhelpfully - in team-mate Perez's path.
We're into the final few minutes of the session now, and both Hamilton and Gasly are the highest-lapping drivers with 29 a piece. Perez is lowest with 20 so far.
Stopwatch
If we combined the best sectors, we'd have a 1m17.945s - taking Hamilton's first sector, Bottas' second, and Leclerc's third.
Quote
"How are the tyres, how is the balance?" asks Fernando Alonso's race engineer. "Oversteering," comes the curt reply.
Bottas had his long-run on the softs paused, and he's now taken on the mediums to do some further exploration.
The Mercs are running around in the low 1m23s, which Leclerc and Alonso were in the same ball-park. Gasly was in the high 1m23s last time around, with Ocon on mediums in the mid-1m24s.
It feels like pre-season testing now, with drivers pounding around the Barcelona circuit on race runs. The only thing that would complete the experience is the dreaded Burger Stall of Gloom...
Now, the "fun" begins as the teams assess how deep into a race the soft tyre will go.
Kimi Raikkonen's Alfa is currently doused in flow-vis paint to assess some bargeboard and floor aero movements. Otherwise, it's quite quiet now as we waltz to the race-style runs.
Perez brings his car up into the top 10, going up to 10th and just over a tenth off Verstappen.
Tsunoda now goes P7, just a slither off Gasly's best lap so far, so his earlier hop-skip-jump over the Campsa kerb hasn't affected him too much.
Some improvements still happening out there - Gasly went up to P6 before coming into the pits, while Ricciardo posts a better lap but can only get P14.
Verstappen was on a quicker lap, but got caught out at Turn 10 and had a severe case of the wiggles - carrying in too much pace.
Alonso wedges himself between Ocon and Sainz to go P5, which points at a very close midfield battle this weekend.
Ocon then went up to fourth, with Sainz moving up to fifth - so it's all change as we approach the end of the first half-hour.
Gasly now gets up to third as the field all takes to the soft tyre running, but is quickly nudged down a spot by Ferrari's Leclerc.
Norris now pops his McLaren between the two Astons, going fifth fastest.
The Aston duo blasts into the top five on softs, with Vettel in fourth 0.2s ahead of Stroll in fifth.
Stopwatch
Now bearing soft tyres, Bottas does a 1m18.309s to go a tenth faster than his best - but Hamilton on the same compound logs a 1m18.170s to go top.
Quote
There's a replay of Tsunoda running over the Turn 9 kerbs, knocking out some fillings and giving his AlphaTauri car a few problems to boot. "The car switched off," he says.
Ricciardo gets himself up to P11, two tenths off Norris, and displaces Giovinazzi in the meantime. Stroll, Sainz, Raikkonen, Vettel, Latifi, Russell, Schumacher and Mazepin complete the order.
After the initial flurry of runs, our top 10 is: Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso, Gasly, Ocon, Perez, Leclerc, Tsunoda and Norris.
Verstappen remains third, but now gets into the 1m18s with a 1m18.785s. That puts him further ahead of the Alpine duo, Perez and Gasly.
'Twas a bit of debris shed from the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr, who went wide at Campsa and lost some bodywork to the sausage kerb.
Yellow flag
We've got a VSC to clear a spot of debris, but that's swiftly cleared by a sprinting marshal.
Hamilton has another tilt, half a tenth off Bottas' best as it stands. Verstappen is a further half-second behind the Mercedes duo.
Stopwatch
Bottas raises the bar even further and logs a 1m18.419s lap - just under a tenth quicker than his best this morning.
Stopwatch
Hamilton then drops into second, going 0.2s slower than Bottas, but then Verstappen logs a 1m19.041s to go quickest on mediums.
Leclerc's up to second with Norris third at the moment, with Ocon ahead of Sainz.
Schumacher evokes memories of the 1982 German World Cup team with an excellent save, catching his errant Haas at Turn 2. Well held.
Stopwatch
Immediately, Bottas smashes that with a 1m19.087s, which was inevitable really.
Stopwatch
First lap recorded goes to Antonio Giovinazzi, a 1m20.691s.

By: Stephen Lickorish, Jake Boxall-Legge

Published: