Both of this Friday's free practice sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya, Spain - ended with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton at the top of the standings.

The Ferrari drivers completed a set of 125 laps, covering the equivalent of almost a race distance.

In the morning, both drivers started lapping on the hard tyre, but they set their best times on the softer compound. Sebastian Vettel set a 1’17”981.

Sebastian Vettel's approach on the Spanish track was slightly different. Vettel ended the day of free practice in fifth and twelfth position.

Having endured a disastrous start to the 2020 season, Vettel seems to have found the motivation that was missing at the beginning of the season, also given by the replacement of the chassis, after the previous one had a small inconvenience when passing over a curb which also led to the breakdown of the internal combustion engine, which was later replaced on both cars.

In the afternoon, Vettel has struggled in FP2, finishing in twelfth position after using and thus focusing on a long-run race pace and completing 36 laps.

“It was a mixed day: I was reasonably happy in terms of our lap pace, even if in the afternoon I struggled a bit more to put the laps together. However generally I have a better feeling with the car.

“Today we tried a few things and we have learned some things we can use tomorrow. Let’s see where we are after quali.

“In terms of race pace we should be quite okay, but obviously there is still some work to do. In particular, managing the tyres will be key and with the high temperatures expected to continue, this will be far from easy.” he said after the end of the free practice sessions.

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