[caption id="attachment_2905" align="alignright" width="300"] Hamilton obliges fans on Friday. An FIA image[/caption]

Mercedes driver fastest again ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg and Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace in Barcelona repeating his time-sheet-topping performance of the morning in the day’s second session.

Mercedes ended the day with top two times as Nico Rosberg joined his team-mate at the top of the order, the German making up for lost time after his opening session was interrupted by power unit problems. He finished just under half a second adrift of Hamilton, who set a best lap of 1:25.524.

Third place went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian finishing just under a second behind Rosberg, but over half a second up on fourth-place Fernando Alonso.

Ricciardo was the only Red Bull running in the afternoon, however. After being restricted to just four laps in the morning with an electrical problem, the Austrian team failed to repair the damage caused in the afternoon and the champion was forced to sit out the whole session.

Alonso, meanwhile, was less than 0.2s ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who finished the second in fifth place. The twin Ferraris were followed by the McLarens of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button respectively.

Felipe Massa was eighth for Williams and was followed by the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado. The Lotus driver had a good afternoon completing 42 laps but it was a more tricky outing for team-mate Romain Grosjean.

The Frenchman suffered with engine woes and brake issues, the latter forcing him to abandon the session after 26 laps.

Elsewhere, there was a worrying moment for Jean-Eric Vergne late in the session. The Toro Rosso driver came out of the pit only for the right-rear wheel of his STR9 to detach and he was to stop at Turn 2.

2014 Spanish Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Times

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.524 33

2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.973 0.449 36

3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:26.509 0.985 38

4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:27.121 1.597 33

5 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:27.296 1.772 33

6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:27.788 2.264 37

7 Jenson Button McLaren 1:27.811 2.287 29

8 Felipe Massa Williams 1:27.824 2.300 31

9 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:27.866 2.342 42

10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:28.049 2.525 35

11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:28.074 2.550 31

12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:28.246 2.722 30

13 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:28.284 2.760 33

14 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:28.698 3.174 33

15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:29.105 3.581 24

16 Sergio Perez Force India 1:29.129 3.605 34

17 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:29.493 3.969 26

18 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:29.991 4.467 26

19 Max Chilton Marussia 1:31.148 5.624 28

20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:31.338 5.814 38

21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:31.586 6.062 39

eom/FIA release