Practice report

F1 Spanish GP: Oscar Piastri fastest in FP2 from George Russell

Oscar Piastri has ensured McLaren remained on top in F1 Spanish GP Friday practice

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has set the fastest time in Friday's second practice session at the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.

Piastri set his benchmark halfway through the one-hour session to grab the lead from Mercedes driver George Russell.

At the start of the session Piastri's team-mate Lando Norris picked up where he left off by immediately dipping below his FP1 leading time with a 1m13.636s on mediums.

Norris led the early running ahead of Max Verstappen and Piastri, until Russell upped the pace after 15 minutes with a 1m13.501s.

The Briton went faster still after he put on Pirelli's softest compound and clocked a 1m13.046s after 23 minutes, following by Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli a quarter of a second behind.

Verstappen and Norris set identical lap times must 0.024s behind Russell, until Piastri took over command at the halfway mark.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

The Australian's soft-tyre lap of 1m12.760s remained at the top of the leaderboard throughout the session as teams switched focus to long runs.

Piastri led the session 0.286s clear of Russell and 0.310s ahead of both Verstappen and Norris, while Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari after demoting Antonelli.

Fernando Alonso was an encouraging seventh in front of his home fans in the Aston Martin, followed by Alpine man Pierre Gasly.

Racing Bulls duo Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson rounded out the top 10.

Oliver Bearman suffered the only incident of note, as he spun into the gravel early on in the session at Turn 3, and needed his Haas car repairing in the team garage. The British driver ended FP2 19th, only quicker than Alpine's Franco Colapinto.

F1 Spanish GP - FP2 results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	28	1'12.760		S	230.417
2	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	32	+0.286 1'13.046	0.286	S	229.515
3	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	Red Bull	Red Bull	30	+0.310 1'13.070	0.024	S	229.440
4	L. Norris McLaren	4	McLaren	Mercedes	31	+0.310 1'13.070	0.000	S	229.440
5	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	33	+0.500 1'13.260	0.190	S	228.845
6	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12	Mercedes	Mercedes	31	+0.538 1'13.298	0.038	S	228.726
7	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Mercedes	28	+0.541 1'13.301	0.003	S	228.717
8	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Renault	30	+0.625 1'13.385	0.084	S	228.455
9	I. Hadjar Racing Bulls	6	RB	Honda	29	+0.640 1'13.400	0.015	S	228.408
10	L. Lawson Racing Bulls	30	RB	Honda	29	+0.734 1'13.494	0.094	S	228.116
11	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	Ferrari	Ferrari	29	+0.773 1'13.533	0.039	M	227.995
12	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27	Sauber	Ferrari	30	+0.832 1'13.592	0.059	S	227.812
13	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22	Red Bull	Red Bull	31	+0.923 1'13.683	0.091	S	227.531
14	C. Sainz Williams	55	Williams	Mercedes	34	+0.961 1'13.721	0.038	S	227.414
15	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	32	+1.079 1'13.839	0.118	S	227.050
16	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Mercedes	17	+1.079 1'13.839	0.000	S	227.050
17	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5	Sauber	Ferrari	27	+1.199 1'13.959	0.120	S	226.682
18	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31	Haas	Ferrari	30	+1.245 1'14.005	0.046	S	226.541
19	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87	Haas	Ferrari	20	+1.366 1'14.126	0.121	S	226.171
20	F. Colapinto Alpine	43	Alpine	Renault	31	+1.543 1'14.303	0.177	S	225.632
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