Lewis Hamilton went fastest for Mercedes in second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, with Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari separating the Mercedes pair, as Nico Rosberg finished third.

The World Champion lapped the Barcelona circuit in 1:26:852, a stunning four tenths up on Vettel in his Ferrari and Rosberg around eight tenths down on his team mate. Kimi Raikkonen in the sister Ferrari was fourth as it was made clear the Ferrari’s will be Mercedes’ closest rivals yet again.

The upgrades brought with the Ferrari, around 16 in total, appear not to have made much difference as Mercedes look around the same sort of distance ahead as they were in Bahrain three weeks ago. Rosberg has claimed his W06 had gearbox issues and this was why he didn’t threaten Hamilton more.

Lewis appeared in a good mood after his strong practice session: "It’s been okay," Hamilton told Sky F1, "It’s been a fairly decent day, no problems really. We’ve just been working on the set up. It’s quite windy today so the car’s been affected by that, but otherwise it’s been good."

When Vettel was asked if his SF15 could be improved, the German agreed: "I think we can improve the car, yes. I think the gap was four-tenths, and a bit more if you look at the whole day. "I haven’t seen the long runs but I guess the gap is still there. That’s the bad news for us," the German added.

Daniel Ricciardo’s engine woes continued as the Australian missed most of the session. The Red Bull man is on his final allocated engine already after a spectacular blowout in Bahrain last time out saw him change onto his final allowed engine of the season. Team mate Daniil Kvyat went fifth fastest in the other Red Bull in what was a productive afternoon for the Russian.

Jenson Button will have been encouraged by his McLaren, finishing the session in seventh around 1.6 seconds slower than Hamilton’s benchmark. Team-mate Fernando Alonso was 11th and offered the funniest moment of the day. The Spaniard challenged his engineer over his energy recovery system: "The battery is not charging," the Spaniard reported. "It is charging, keep going," Alonso was told in response. "Maybe you have a virus on your computer then because it is not charging," the former champion replied.

Toro Rosso pair sealed another double top ten as Carlos Sainz managed sixth while Max Verstappen went ninth. The scariest moment of the afternoon came when Romain Grosjean’s Lotus decided to disintegrate on track. The red flag came out as his E23’s bodywork fell off down the pit straight when the Frenchman was travelling at around 200mph. He finished the session 12th with team mate Pastor Maldonado 14th.

Running order:

1) Hamilton (Mercedes), 2) Vettel (Ferrari), 3) Rosberg (Mercedes), 4) Raikkonen (Ferrari), 5) Kvyat (Red Bull), 6) Verstappen (Toro Rosso), 7) Button (McLaren), 8) Bottas (Williams), 9) Sainz (Toro Rosso), 10) Massa (Williams), 11) Alonso (McLaren), 12) Grosjean (Lotus), 13) Ricciardo (Red Bull), 14) Maldonado (Lotus), 15) Nasr (Sauber), 16) Ericsson (Sauber) 17) Hulkenberg (Force India), 18) Perez (Force India), 19) Stevens (Manor), 20) Merhi (Manor)

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About the author
Aaron Irwin
Formula 1 editor, Football League co-editor at VAVEL UK. Writer since July 2014. Hull City correspondent. Currently studying for a Journalism degree at Hull School of Art and Design.