Spain – Free Practice 2: Vettel Takes the Lead by a Whisker

The sun made its reappearance for this second free practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix. Weather conditions that will allow teams to properly evaluate the numerous improvements made to the different cars. The drivers quickly complete a flying lap and the leadership changes hands regularly. After 10 minutes, it’s the two Mercedes leading the way, Hamilton with a 1:23.900 ahead of Rosberg. Hamilton loses control of his F1W04 a few moments later in turn 13. There’s a lot of activity on the track.

Jean-Eric Vergne is the first to take to the track with medium tires, which allows him to slip into 5th place while Sergio Pérez makes his entry into the top 10. McLaren has many new developments to evaluate during this second session of the day. A third of the way through these free practice 2 sessions, it is Fernando Alonso who is the fastest with a time of 1:23.030. The Ferrari driver is ahead of Webber’s Red Bull RB9 and Felipe Massa. Behind them, it’s the two Marussia cars bringing up the rear, Bianchi ahead of Chilton. The gap to the Caterhams is unusually large, undoubtedly indicating that the Marussia drivers have not given everything. This is confirmed by Bianchi, who improves his time to position himself between Pic and Van der Garde.

After 38 minutes, Mark Webber takes the lead and goes under the 1:23 mark with a lap of 1:22.891. At the mid-session, it’s Vettel who is at the front. Alonso and Webber are just behind. The gap between the top three is only 0.83 seconds. Felipe Massa, then 4th, is 0.3 seconds behind the triple world champion German. Things don’t seem to be going as Romain Grosjean would like. The French driver shakes his head as he returns to his garage. At this point in the session, he is only 18th, more than a second behind his teammate.

At this stage of the session, the teams begin their preparation work for the race. At Ferrari, Felipe Massa switches to Pirelli’s hard tires. These simulations provide an initial indication of tire wear. At Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel starts to seriously lose performance after 13 laps on the medium compound. The German is lapping in 1:31 at this point, while at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton is at 1:32 after 9 laps on the same tires.

There are just over 15 minutes left in this session when Paul di Resta abandons his Force India at the exit of the pit lane. The left rear tire (medium compound) of his car exploded on the pit straight. The Scotsman returns to his pit and is visibly annoyed by his misadventure.

In the last ten minutes of this session, Ferrari continues its comparison work in preparation for the race, while McLaren installs a new front wing on Sergio Pérez’s MP4-28. Sam Michael mentioned at the end of this morning’s session that not all the new parts have been fitted on the McLaren, which is also assessing the real gain provided by them. A good way to ensure the correlation between the work done at the factory and the results on the track.

At the end of the hour and a half, it’s Sebastian Vettel who holds the best time at 1:22.808. Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber are very close.

Free Practice 2 Results of the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix: