Leclerc fastest as Mercedes drivers split the Ferraris in FP2

Charles Leclerc made it a Friday practice clean sweep for himself and Ferrari by topping the times during FP2 for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Leclerc worked his way down to a time of 1:19.670 on the Soft compound tyre, shaving a couple of tenths off his benchmark from first practice.

Rather than teammate Carlos Sainz or Max Verstappen's Red Bull, the two Mercedes drivers emerged as Leclerc's closest challenger.

George Russell was a tenth adrift, with Lewis Hamilton a tenth further back, as the W13 appeared to be managing the porpoising phenomenon better than at recent events.

Red Bull watch on as Ferrari and Mercedes set the pace

Red Bull ended the day as the third-fastest team, with Max Verstappen three-tenths off the pace and Sergio Perez almost a second back.

Verstappen placed fifth overall, followed by Alpine's Fernando Alonso, who picked up a reprimand for blocking Hamilton in FP1.

Perez was only seventh in the other RB18, having sat out first practice while Formula 2 racer Juri Vips made his Grand Prix weekend debut (another to be reprimanded for blocking).

Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Mick Schumacher (Haas) rounded out the top 10 positions.

McLaren drop down the order, problems for Bottas

After both cars featured inside the top 10 in first practice, McLaren plummeted down the timesheets as the day wore on.

Lando Norris was unable to complete a lap on the Soft tyre, however, having run wide at Turn 9 and through the gravel, which forced him back to the pits for checks.

With Norris in 20th and last, Daniel Ricciardo was left to lead the team's charge in 15th, behind the two AlphaTauris of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda and the other Haas and Aston Martin machines of Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll.

There was trouble for Valtteri Bottas and Alfa Romeo as the Finn ground to a halt in the first sector just 10 minutes in, costing him the vast majority of the one-hour session.

It left Bottas down in 16th, ahead of only teammate Zhou Guanyu, Williams pair Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi and the aforementioned Norris.