Mercedes-powered cars dominate as Norris edges Russell in Spanish GP FP2

After making way for the rookies during the first practice session, championship leader Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton returned to their respective cars for the second practice session, joining the rest of the field for the first qualifying and race simulation runs of the weekend.

The session got off to a flying start, with Piastri immediately lowering Russell's FP1 benchmark by six tenths. Running on the medium compound tyres, the McLaren driver posted a 1:15.724, with Verstappen and Leclerc slotting in behind him after the opening ten minutes of running. Russell endured a brief scare through Turn 3 after suffering a quick snap of oversteer, but the Mercedes driver managed to catch the slide and continue without any issues. Shortly afterwards, Russell climbed to second on the timesheets, stopping the clock just two tenths adrift of pace-setter Piastri.

With 40 minutes remaining, Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls developed a technical issue on the main straight. The New Zealander was forced to pull over and park the car at the side of the track, bringing his session to a premature end after reporting that he had lost the gearbox. However, the incident did not trigger a red flag, with the session resuming after only a brief Virtual Safety Car period.

Verstappen was the first of the frontrunners to bolt on the soft tyres for a qualifying simulation, but his opening flying lap left him almost six tenths off the benchmark, which had remarkably been set by the session leader earlier on the medium compound. Bottas also ran into trouble, this time with an ECU issue.

Leclerc made his presence felt on the soft compound, vaulting up to second on the timesheets and ending up just 0.075s shy of Piastri's leading effort. It was Russell, however, who ultimately laid down the marker. Russell later produced a 1:15.435 to move to the top of the timesheets, opening up a three-tenths advantage over Piastri. Teammate Antonelli, meanwhile, could do no better than half a second adrift of Russell despite running on the same tyre compound.

Piastri responded immediately, with the McLaren once again showing impressive pace. The Australian closed the gap to just 0.048s, narrowly missing out on reclaiming top spot from Russell. Norris further underlined McLaren's competitiveness this weekend, edging ahead of Russell with a 1:15.426 to claim top spot by the slender margin of just nine thousandths of a second.

In the final ten minutes, the field switched focus to race simulations, with both McLaren and Mercedes showing remarkably similar pace. The two teams consistently lapped in the low 1:21s while also displaying very stable tyre degradation over longer runs. Ferrari also looked competitive, with Leclerc in particular producing several laps in the high 1:20s.