Hamilton hits back in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton has finished Friday on the top of the timesheets ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Englishman was 0.408s faster than Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari, in a session where teams and drivers mainly did long runs in preparation for the race.

Nico Rosberg finished a further three tenths back from his team-mate, but he will be encouraged by his long run pace which seemed to be quicker than the world champion.

Kimi Raikkonen secured fourth, while Red Bull and Toro Rosso put in another good display to finish closely behind.

Daniel Ricciardo has suffered another miserable day due to reliability issues and ran for just five minutes at the end of FP2.

Sunday’s race looks like being another tyre battle, as Ferrari and Mercedes go head to head. The initial signs are that Vettel and Rosberg have the edge on their team-mates, but Hamilton has managed to respond on Sundays.

Williams will also hope to improve and close the gap to the top two, but initial signs are not promising. Felipe Massa came 10^th in FP2, while Valtteri Bottas came 8^th.

Jenson Button finished an encouraging seventh for McLaren, with Fernando Alonso 11^th.

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