Spanish GP, FP2 - Bottas dominates Fridays sessions in Barcelona
The second and final Free Practice session of the day ends with Bottas on top again. A one -two for Mercedes, as Leclerc and Vettel follows in 3rd and 4th position.
The morning session saw Valtteri Bottas on top of the standings. Despite all the upgrades brought here, both Ferrari’s driver could only place themselves tenths behind Bottas.
The Finn hit some hydraulic issues at the end of the FP1; everything seems okay now, for him. The same can not be said for Max Verstappen: the Dutch man had some unknown issues too in the morning, but after an installation lap in the first minutes of FP2, the number 33 was forced to come back to the garage. The engine cover has been removed because of an oil leak, but the engine seems okay, so the 2016 Barcelona GP winner can be soon come out on track again.
For his first out run Sebastian Vettel used the C2 yellow compound for the first time this weekend: both Ferrari brought more C3 sets than Mercedes and that’s why they only used C3 tyres during FP1. With the same compound, again, Valtteri Bottas puts himself on top, getting out of the garage after 20 minutes from the green - light. The Finn scored a lap time of 1.18.259s, while Vettel stays almost 3 tenths behind. The Ferrari man lose some time in the last sector compared to Bottas’ lap time.
If Bottas is living his life with the W10, scoring best lap after best lap, his team mate Lewis Hamilton is having some hard times in making his car working as it should, having some issues in keeping his car on track. Hamilton starts his session wearing C1 compound, the hardest set selected by Pirelli, and so is Charles Leclerc. The five time world champion finally scores his personal best lap time after three attempts with the C1 compound, scoring a 1.18.647s.
With one hour left on the timer, Ferrari’s come back on top with Vettel leading: 1.17.673s with a new C2 set, followed by Leclerc, 0.027s behind.
Hamilton, at his first attempt with C2 tyres, comes back on top, as his able to make the softer tyres sets work better with his W10, but he is shortly pushed back in second position by Bottas. The Finn is unstoppable and scores a best lap times of 1.17.284s.
The last 30 minutes of the session are dedicated to the race simulations: both Silver Arrows can make their tyres work better than Ferrari on the long runs. Bottas is the master with all the compounds, as Hamilton still hits some troubles in keeping the car straight on track with the hardest compounds.
Merdeces seems clearly haead of Ferrari; the Prancing Horse shows some sparks of pure speed, but they will be enought to beat Mercedes and Bottas? Good day for Haas too, with both cars in the top 10 at the end of FP2, as well as Red Bull and Gasly. Good day for local hero Carlos Sainz too, who closes in P9.
Here's the complete standings at the end of the second Free Practice session in Barcelona. 
