F1 | Analysis of free practice in Spain: Ferrari struggling with the soft tires, Mercedes super on the race pace

Having completed free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, led by Hamilton and Mercedes in general, we are going to analyze as usual what happened in the second session, in particular in the race pace simulation. What we have clearly seen will not give us a precise indication of what we will see on Sunday, but we can get a more or less idea. Meanwhile, on the flying lap, the two drivers of the world champion team placed themselves in front of everyone, with Leclerc third, just a few thousandths behind Bottas. It would be very important to qualify as far ahead as possible, because the overtaking opportunities in Barcelona are very limited, probably only in Turn 1 given the change made to La Caixa, which has been made faster and therefore is probably one braking point less than to the past.

The Mercedes, as you can see in our time table, seem to have a much better pace and consistency than the competition, with Red Bull having a rather complicated day due to Verstappen's various mistakes both on the flying lap and on the race pace, in which he made a mistake during the first lap, then failing to find the right rhythm except in the final, printing a 22.9 with the soft tires after the eighth pass and a 22.5 in the only lap with the mediums. The forecasts before the Spanish weekend gave Mercedes the favourite, and we have no difficulty in believing that the expectations can be confirmed. Clearly a lot will depend on tomorrow's qualifying, and a Verstappen even among Hamilton and Bottas could shuffle the cards on the table.

Chapter Ferrari and singing company: Carlos Sainz shot exclusively with the soft tires, always at 1:24. The Spaniard did many laps, but the softer compound (C3) brought by Pirelli was never convincing. Leclerc, on the other hand, after two overall good laps and one slower one, immediately broke away from the soft, going to medium and still lapping in 23rd. Considering his direct opponents, see Norris, the Monegasque's laps don't seem bad at all, while if we compare the runs with the softs of Sainz and Gasly, we see that the Frenchman managed to lap a few tenths faster in several laps. Totally different work for Alpine: Ocon, the only one in the table, worked only with the medium tyres, probably simulating the first part of the race, while Alonso, outside this list, only used the soft tyres, setting times even one second faster than Sainz, we believe that the two-time world champion tried the second stint of the race, thus reversing the strategy compared to usual. In fact, however, the French team seems to be in really good shape given the fourth and fifth times obtained today.

In conclusion, Ferrari could place a car in the top five, as could Alpine, without forgetting McLaren, which today tested several aerodynamic innovations, and usually on Fridays both Norris and Ricciardo do not show the full potential of the MCL35M. As always, keep an eye out for AlphaTauri and an Aston Martin that is perhaps a little in better shape than in the first three races. Up front however, Mercedes could also occupy the entire front row, but never give up on Verstappen, even if today he seemed more subdued than usual.