Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Bottas stays on top in second practice

2019 Spanish Grand Prix second practice

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Valtteri Bottas headed both practice sessions on Friday at the Circuit de Catalunya, leading a Mercedes one-two in the afternoon.

Lewis Hamilton was less than five hundredths of a second off Bottas’s pace as the pair led the field in a quiet afternoon session at the Circuit de Catalunya. Track conditions were slightly warmer than in first practice, rising to 42C, and lap times fell by six-tenths of a second.

Ferrari, running new engines in their cars, set the third and fourth fastest times. Charles Leclerc was three-tenths of a second off the fastest of the Mercedes after the front-runners set their quickest times on soft compound tyres. Sebastian Vettel ended the session within a tenth of a second of his team mate.

The Red Bull and Haas drivers occupied the next four places, Romain Grosjean splitting the RB15s to go sixth. Carlos Sainz Jnr and Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10.

The Toro Rosso driver led a group of five covered by just 0.139 seconds. Kimi Raikkonen was next ahead of Alexander Albon in the other Toro Rosso, Lance Stroll – back on track after his first practice crash – and the Renault pair.

The Williams drivers ended the session at the foot of the times again. Robert Kubica went through a gravel trap at one stage but kept out of the barriers.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
177Valtteri BottasMercedes1’17.28435
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’17.3330.04935
316Charles LeclercFerrari1’17.5850.30142
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’17.6730.38941
533Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’18.0350.75130
68Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’18.1530.86942
710Pierre GaslyRed Bull-Honda1’18.2380.95434
820Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’18.3551.07140
955Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’18.6581.37445
1026Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’18.7221.43840
117Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’18.7271.44330
1223Alexander AlbonToro Rosso-Honda1’18.7791.49544
1318Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’18.8391.55533
1427Nico HulkenbergRenault1’18.8611.57743
153Daniel RicciardoRenault1’18.9341.65040
164Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’19.0411.75743
1799Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’19.4272.14337
1811Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’19.4482.16440
1963George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’20.1912.90738
2088Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’20.7813.49723

Second practice visual gaps

Valtteri Bottas – 1’17.284

+0.049 Lewis Hamilton – 1’17.333

+0.301 Charles Leclerc – 1’17.585

+0.389 Sebastian Vettel – 1’17.673

+0.751 Max Verstappen – 1’18.035

+0.869 Romain Grosjean – 1’18.153

+0.954 Pierre Gasly – 1’18.238

+1.071 Kevin Magnussen – 1’18.355

+1.374 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’18.658

+1.438 Daniil Kvyat – 1’18.722

+1.443 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’18.727

+1.495 Alexander Albon – 1’18.779

+1.555 Lance Stroll – 1’18.839

+1.577 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’18.861

+1.650 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’18.934

+1.757 Lando Norris – 1’19.041

+2.143 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’19.427

+2.164 Sergio Perez – 1’19.448

+2.907 George Russell – 1’20.191

+3.497 Robert Kubica – 1’20.781

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2019 Spanish Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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46 comments on “Bottas stays on top in second practice”

  1. Willems stay near the last of the midpack within 1 second instead of the 2-3 seconds before.

    1. @macLeod
      All season they will be behind Raisin Pint, Maclarin, Runalt, and Alfonso Rumo.. that is their reality.

  2. Go Lewis go

  3. Not only are Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton topping this session with their one-lap pace, the long run averages look good for them, too.

    Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel’s averages are 1:23.1, while Charles Leclerc’s is a 1:23.2. Bottas and Hamilton’s? A 1:22.5 and 1:22.6.

    “It’s looking pretty ominous,” says Karun Chandhok.

    1. So… Ferrari are looking clear favorites for the win.

      1. Nice try Toto.

        1. Honestly….. I can’t but remember Toto’s message ahead of Australia when he said “No matter what happens during the 1st 4 races, we need to remain focused and fight”, he was referring that their initial problems would be resolved by Barcelona. Now they took four 1-2S, if it’s true that half the car is new “again” with a lot of the updates under the hood then R.I.P season. Ferrari runs higher engine modes on Fridays and they usually top the 1st and 2nd practice seasons with a substantial margin, if Merc are already heading those sessions today then God knows what tomorrow is hiding. Anyway 24 hours until we see. I can’t but feel Mercedes will lock the front row again. The team is ominous.

          1. pretty much. Looks like we’re in for quite a boring season ahead. Sigh… i had such high hopes after the tests

      2. What are you doing here Toto?

        1. Keep it low profile!

  4. Add the 0.5 seconds for party mode and Merc is almost a second faster than Ferrari at this stage.

    1. its not sure Ferrari already used the new engine today.
      So now Ferrari is sandbagging?

      1. Fp3 will be with the new engine that is if you believe Ferrari Pr-man

        1. Where did you read this?
          It sounds so implausible – running a brand new spec at FP3 2 hours before Qualification…

          All other sources indicate they already fitted new components.

      2. They used the new engine in both FP1 and FP2.

        1. you have a source for that?

          Its not uncommon to use a old pool engine for friday.

          1. IIRC Croft said on Sky F1 the FIA has confirmed at 11:05 the replacement of the PUs in Ferraris.
            And I found this:
            ‘The Ferraris of Vettel and Leclerc were second and third, both appearing to benefit from a number of updates including the Italian team’s spec-2 engine.’ http://www.f1reader.com/news/bottas-continues-to-set-barcelona-pace-223072

  5. Damn… those Ferraris are fast and will be running away with wins.

    On a serious note those hotter track temps seem to be playing into hands of Silver Arrows.

    1. those hotter track temps seem to be playing into hands of Silver Arrows

      finally things are starting to look up for poor Toto

  6. This just keeps getting better and better! I love seeing one team dominate and keep getting 1-2s every single race. Bring it on!

    1. I think the only hope is 2021.

    2. Real Madrid in football (until this season) , Mo Farah at 5000m & 10000m, Usain Bolt 100m, Golden State Warriors in the NBA….this is how sport goes. Its up to the others to up their game.

      1. Real Madrid is a bad example. They may have won the UCL 3 times on the trot, but they never dominated. And if an F1 race lasted for just 10-30 seconds, instead of 1.5 hours, I might be less frustrated with having to endure this. And obviously it’s up to others to raise their games. At which point did I say it was undeserved?

        1. At what point did I say that you said it was undeserved?
          I get people don’t like domination. I personally don’t mind as it’s great to see Merc in full swing. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say they are probably the best team ever seen in F1 when you combine driver, mechanical & technical personnel. That’s got to be Admired, no?

      2. All are bad examples. Bring autosport examples, those are comparable.

        1. You want AUTOSPORT comparisons? You must be new to F1 but ok. lotus 60s & 70s. Maclaren late eighties. Williams early 90s. Ferrari early noughties. Rex bull 2010 -2013. Ferrari dominated le mans through 50s & 60s, Audi dominated from 2006-2014. RALLY more your thing? ,Mitsubishi winning from 96-99. Citreon winning from 2004 – 2012, VW winning 4 years in row before that. Shall i go on?

      3. Yup, that’s the same @Dean. It’s not like Real Madrid always had a 12th player, the referee(s), when things could go wrong. It’s not like Ferrari, back in ’00’s, or Mercedes the recent years, had the rules wrapped up around them. It is the same indeed…

        1. It IS the same. The rules are made and one team or person excels more than the others. I get your frusrrations…just, Dont hate the player. Hate the game.

          1. Well, I do not hate neither the player nor the game. I do not have any personal preference, either as a team or for a driver, I just don’t think that it is normal, in the pinnacle of motorsport, in the pinnacle of automobile technology, for 4 and 5 years respectively, no one else to come up with competitive ideas. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. This is 2019 we’re talking about for crying out loud. As I consider myself F1 veteran, even March was able to be competitive and Ivan Capelli had some amazing overtakes on Ayrton Senna with McLaren for christ’s sake. Do you get what I mean? Tyrrell had innovative ideas, Lotus had innovative ideas, Renault had innovative ideas, Williams had innovative ideas, Ron Dennis had innovative ideas. Every or every 2nd year there was fierce competition throughout the season. Even during the Red Bull years there was a really good amount of interest. What on earth was/is going on? “A team or person excels” is not fulfilling for me based on what I have witnessed.

          2. Did I mention Wolf, which gave the chance to Scheckter to compete for the championship, or Ligier and Matra? Forgot to.

    3. Wait, did I miss the race?!?!

      Oh, wait, race will be on Sunday… maybe we talk then?

      1. @dallein Yeah, it’s not like one team has gotten 1-2s at every race so far this season right, and has dominated practice so far this weekend.

      2. Oh please. When will you people step into reality? This is flat out boring!!!! Insanity is watching F1 and expecting different results than a Merc win and pole, apparently. God you defenders of this crap annoy me. We have to have better competition and some unpredictability.

  7. Very disappointing results.

  8. Valterri is impressing so far but I won’t consider him a genuine contender unless he is still in the game at Singapore. Much improved on previous 2 seasons though.
    This is far from making excuses for Lewis but he seems to build a great mechanical team around him only to have that taken away. Has happened twice now. He will over come it, again but seems a little unfair to me but Hey ho.

    1. This. Why does Bottas needs Lewis’s performance engineer ? he needs to figure it out himself. Button also needs Lewis’s mechanics and engineers, as did Rosberg. Shows you how good Lewis is in feedback and input but you won’t hear from it.

  9. All teams seemed to have benefited somewhat by their big upgrades Except Renault and Racing point. I guess it’s only Friday but Renault’s pace in particular is not looking good.

    1. Wait until Daniel gets a pair of fluffy dice hung on the halo & a (fake) foxtail off an aerial in the newest upgrade!🚀 No stopping Renault then.

  10. Oh it’s bad if Ferrari don’t even win the Friday Championship. Maybe they’re going for the Sunday one this time? First time for everything.

  11. I was looking at the practice day times in Barcelona before the season started and they seem to be running about 1 second slower today than day 6, 7 and 8 of testing. 1:17.2 vs 1:16.2. Interesting considering all the updates.
    https://www.racefans.net/2019/02/28/lap-time-watch-2019-f1-testing-day-seven/

    1. Different tyre compounds, different engine modes.

  12. Another boring Mercedes dominated weekend on tap.

    1. Sub out weekend for season.

  13. Now is the time for action then! Put up with this no more…don’t watch.

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