McLaren continued to take the new Technical Directive in their stride as Oscar Piastri topped FP2 at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Piastri‘s closest challenger, Mercedes’ George Russell, was almost three-tenths back as Max Verstappen in the Red Bull completed the Red Bull. But “hero of the day” went to Lewis Hamilton, sarcastically bestowed upon him by Fernando Alonso.

Spanish Grand Prix: McLaren still team to beat?

With the sun still beating down on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, it was time for the second hour of practice.

Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Williams’ Alex Albon were about to get their first taste of track action this race weekend, after sitting out FP1 for Ryo Hirakawa and Victor Martins respectively to get their rookie session running in.

A 1:14.367 set by Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari on medium Pirelli tyres, was the early benchmark to chase, Kimi Antonelli’s chances boosted as he reported that “the balance feels much better than FP1” in his Mercedes.

Piastri meanwhile quipped that he would “drift” the McLaren “more often” when told he had the early purple Sector 1 time.

But, it was McLaren team-mate Lando Norris out front after the first 10 minutes of the session with a 1:13.636, the medium tyres in high demand, as Oliver Bearman took his for a drive through the gravel after a spin coming out of Turn 3.

Turn 10 was giving Max Verstappen a few troubles as he got all out of shape, the same true for Gabriel Bortoleto in the Sauber.

Isack Hadjar meanwhile was getting all hot and bothered with “the traffic”, “a joke” he vented, as Franco Colapinto was noted for potential impeding.

Fernando Alonso was not much happier with the “hero of the day in front of us,” also known as Lewis Hamilton, as he followed his former team-mate into Turn 1.

His current team-mate at Aston Martin, Lance Stroll, was reporting that the car was “just bad”. He returned to the garage, exited the cockpit, and the crew went to work.

F1 2025 head-to-head standings

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

As we approached the halfway mark in FP2, the leaderboard made for fantastic reading in the Mercedes camp as Russell led the way from Antonelli, Russell’s 1:13.046 putting him a quarter of a second up on Antonelli as the soft tyre runs began.

Verstappen soon broke up that Mercedes one-two, as he and Norris set an identical 1:13.070. Piastri wanted top spot and took it on the softs, clearing Russell by just shy of three-tenths.

Yuki Tsunoda was not going along so nicely in the Red Bull, reporting over the radio: “This amount of sliding I have is not normal. This is crazy. No grip.”

“Not driveable,” was how Hamilton was describing his Ferrari, as his FP1 woes spilled over into the latest session.

Bearman returned to the track with 23 minutes left on the clock after work on his Haas car following that excursion through the gravel.

From there the race simulations took over with a mixture of medium and soft tyres in use, Verstappen sent into laughter of disbelief as he got stuck behind Leclerc into Turn 1, both drivers using DRS.

As the chequered flag fell, it was Piastri in P1, 0.286s up on Russell, with Verstappen completing the top three 0.310s off Piastri’s pace.

Full FP2 timesheet

1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:12.760
2 George Russell Mercedes +0.286
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.310
4 Lando Norris McLaren +0.310
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.500
6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.538
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.541
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.625
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.640
10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +0.734
11 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.773
12 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber +0.832
13 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing +0.923
14 Carlos Sainz Williams +0.961
15 Alexander Albon Williams +1.079
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.079
17 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber +1.199
18 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team +1.245
19 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +1.366
20 Franco Colapinto Alpine +1.543

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