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Valtteri Bottas took a clean sweep of fastest laps on Friday running in Barcelona, as he topped the second free practice session.
The Finn was marginally quicker than teammate Lewis Hamilton, who improved on his pace from the morning session. Bottas' lap was a 1:17.284, while Hamilton was less than half a tenth behind.
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Although Ferrari was close after FP1, the Scuderia outfit dropped back in the afternoon, as Charles Leclerc was three-tenths down on Bottas.
Sebastian Vettel was fourth, less than a tenth down on his Monegasque teammate. Max Verstappen was fifth, but was a long way off the top two outfits.
Verstappen ran with the upgraded engine after Red Bull was forced to change his power unit following a leak that occurred during FP1.
Haas tops the midfield once more
As it did in FP1, Haas appeared to be the fastest team in the midfield, as Romain Grosjean, who ran the Haas upgrades on Friday, ended the day in sixth.
His teammate Kevin Magnussen was eighth and settled for a similar gap to his teammate that was seen after FP1. Pierre Gasly split both Haas, and was just under a second down on Bottas' fastest time.
Carlos Sainz once again finished inside the top ten, ahead of Daniil Kvyat who rounded out the top ten.
A number of teams struggled during the session, including Renault, who didn't manage to get a car inside the top ten, despite the small margins.
Racing Point also didn't break into the top ten, as Lance Stroll reconstructed his confidence following his crash during FP1 this morning.
While Still ended the session in 13th, his teammate Sergio Perez was down in 18th, over half a second slower than the Canadian's time.
Circuit de Catalunya - 10 May 2019
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Replies (4)
Login to replyabhidbgt
Posts: 283
Come Sunday it would be a fifth.
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
Yeah, its looking that way, if Ferrari can't top the arrows this weekend I really don't see them being able to claw back given Merc show no signs again of reliability issues, massive weekend for Ferrari.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
So Mercedes did another thing Ferrari didn't: they brought the correct upgrades for this venue. More power is nice, but doesn't mean as much around here as better aero. Ferrari doesn't lack power, they need to better their chassis, is my take on it.
abhidbgt
Posts: 283
Yes, they have to improve their chassis. They have pushed themselves on backfoot by bringing PU upgrade as they would be vulnerable to penalties now. With the situation the way it is now they should be wary of Red Bull poaching away points because of penalties incurred. Although RBH is vulnerable too in that respect but the team which is currently ahead is always going to be more vulnerable to losing points.