The Spanish Grand Prix free practice session returned under the baking heat at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Charles Leclerc led the second practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, with Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton slipping into second and third in their upgraded W13s.

The mercury was reading 30 degrees Celsius (with 45 degrees track temperature) as the drivers headed out on track at 1700 local time. Unfortunately for Valtteri Bottas, sunbathing looked set to be his main activity in FP2. The Finn managed just two laps before pulling off to the side of the track at Turn 2 after 10 minutes – technical issues once again rearing their head at Alfa Romeo.

With the first medium, tyre-shod runs done and dusted – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen heading those from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Leclerc – teams bolted on soft tires and began serious qualifying simulations. Verstappen took an early lead with a 1m 20.006s.

But as others headed out on a track that had cooled by a degree or two, Leclerc would ultimately set the session benchmark of 1m 19.670s to complete a clean sweep of best times from Friday in his own upgraded Ferrari F1-75.

Mercedes were fast on Friday two weeks ago in Miami and repeated the trick here, as Russell took P2, 0.117s off Leclerc’s pace, and less than a tenth up on teammate Hamilton.

That left Sainz fourth, with Verstappen taking fifth—0.336s off his championship rival Leclerc. Fernando Alonso made it both Spanish drivers in the top six, as he ended up two-tenths off Verstappen’s time in his Alpine and ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez—who had given up his car to Juri Vips for FP1.

Sebastian Vettel took eighth in the heavily updated Aston Martin AMR22, narrowly ahead of the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon, with Mick Schumacher doing an excellent job for Haas to round out the top 10. Traction problems appeared to hamper Pierre Gasly, who complained of getting sideways every time he touched the throttle on his AlphaTauri.

But he managed to get the AT03 under control enough to take 11th ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and Lance Stroll 13th for Aston Martin ahead of Yuki Tsunoda’s second AlphaTauri.

McLaren had a compromised session on Friday in Spain as Daniel Ricciardo did not manage a soft tire run until late, taking 15th. Lando Norris was forced to miss a chunk of FP2 after running wide at Turn 9 and damaging his floor.

Valtteri Bottas managed to pip his teammate to 16th despite an early stoppage—Zhou Guanyu having also given up the early afternoon session to Robert Kubica—with Alex Albon taking P18 for Williams, the Thai driver having missed FP1 in favor of Nyck de Vries.

Teammate Nicholas Latifi was a full 0.878s up on Albon as Norris brought up the rear in the second and heavily updated McLaren. Ferrari’s updates looked to be working nicely on Friday in Spain—but so do Mercedes’!

What can those two teams, plus Red Bull, Alpine, Aston Martin, and the rest, achieve in qualifying on Saturday?

Valtteri Bottas grinds to a halt early in FP2 😫#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/9RDxkbq9da

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 20, 2022