The Ferrari driver and pre-race leader improved his form from FP1 by also climbing to the top of the second of Friday’s one-hour practice in Barcelona.
Leclerc is moving clearly with his soft Pirelli C3 tires from qualifying to 1m19.670s.
This found 0.16s above its benchmark FP1 effort, plus close to 0.6s of Hamilton’s pre-season pre-season test at the end of February, set on the fastest C5 rubber.
That took Leclerc 0.117 seconds away from Russell, the Mercedes driver who set the pace during the last FP2 for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.
Hamilton later used the soft tire and moved particularly well in the final of the second sector to reach the third fastest effort – albeit another 0.09 seconds less than his teammate.
Meanwhile, before his home race, Carlos Sainz led the second Ferrari F1-75 to fourth place ahead of defending champion Max Verstappen.
Alexander Albon, Mick Schumacher, Aston Martins and Esteban Ocon were the first drivers to hit the track in FP2, as the field initially adhered to the medium and hard tire.
Sergio Perez and Albon also made their first run of the weekend after missing out on FP1 as Formula 2 winner Yuri Vips (Red Bull) and Formula E champion Nick de Vries (Williams) held their first GP training sessions of the weekend.
Similarly, Zhou Guanyu returned to the cockpit of Alfa Romeo after replacing Robert Kubica in the first practice.
Verstappen was the first driver to set a fairly representative time for a lap on a medium tire, as he and Sainz fell below the 1m21s threshold ahead of Leclerc and Mercedes.
But after only 11 minutes, the session was interrupted by a virtual safety car.
This intervention came when Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo, who was sixth at the time, ran straight into the home after the Finn had completed just three laps.
Valteri Botas, Alfa Romeo C42, parked with a technical problem
Photo: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
A cloud of smoke from behind was combined with the engine, which seemed to stop instantly when Botas stopped at the edge of the track at the exit of turn 1.
After three minutes on the VSC, other notable incidents hit Albon and Lando Norris as they both escaped the high-speed 9-right turn.
This left them peering over the outer curb, kicking gravel and sparks.
Both drivers expected damage to the floor of their ground effect machines, but while Alban continued the session, Norris was forced to return to McLaren’s garage for the remainder of FP2 after completing just six laps.
Albon and Sainz also remain under investigation by stewards after a close call between the couple on turn 2.
After 21 minutes, the transition to soft tires and halo qualifications arrived, with Vettel taking first place in the highly updated and controversial Aston Martin AMR22.
His 1m20.703 – then the fastest at 0.23s – was soon overtaken by Perez, although the Red Bull driver slowed down due to cornering traffic 10.
Verstappen then exploded in time with its 1m20.006s, revealing a huge margin of 0.7s at the time.
He would remain the fastest pilot in the first and last sectors, but gave way during the middle of the lap.
Then Sainz, Mercedes and Leclerc set deadlines to lead FP2.
It was not so rosy for Leclerc in his late middle tire race, as he was a few tenths behind on the Verstappen lap, complaining about the behavior and deterioration of the tires.
Fernando Alonso led his Alpine to sixth in front of his audience, while Perez and Vettel descended to seventh and eighth in front of Esteban Ocon and Mick Schumacher.
Pierre Gasley was the first driver to miss the top 10, with AlphaTauri ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and Lance Stroll.
Yuki Tsunoda was 14th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo to finish a test afternoon for McLaren, while Botas’ very early bath left him 16th in front of his colleague Zhou.
Norris rounded out the time behind the two Williams, Albon overtook Nicholas Latifi.
Add Comment