Hamilton quickest in practice at the Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has put Mercedes on top of the practice timesheets at the Spanish Grand Prix with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz second fastest in front of his home fans at the Circuit de Catalunya and four teams closely matched.

McLaren's Lando Norris had set the pace in first practice, 0.024 quicker than Red Bull's triple Formula One world champion Max Verstappen, while the Briton was also third in the second FP2 session on Friday.

Verstappen dropped to fifth in that session, albeit on slower medium tyres compared to others on softs, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly a surprisingly fast fourth and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc sixth.

Norris's Australian teammate Oscar Piastri was sixth in the opening session, and finished seventh quickest in the second session.

Seven-times world champion Hamilton set a best time of one minute 13.264 seconds, 0.022 quicker than Sainz, after Norris had led FP1 with a lap of 1:14.228.

"FP1 wasn't the best session for us but we still learned quite a lot. FP2 was a lot better though and the car was feeling great," said Hamilton.

"The track was very hot, so it was tough on the tyres, especially on the long run. Overall, though, it didn't feel like we were too far off being right in the mix at the front.

"Hopefully we can continue the momentum from today into Saturday and get closer to our competitors ahead."

The lap times compared to last year's first free practice best of 1:14.606, when the then-dominant Red Bulls were one-two and Verstappen a mighty 0.768 quicker than Perez, and Verstappen's 1:13.907 in 2023's second session.

The battle at the top has got a lot closer since then and there were five teams in the top five in Friday's second session after four in the top four earlier in the day.

"All in all a good start to the weekend ... I'm sure it's going to be close again, like it was in Canada," said Norris, looking forward to Saturday's qualifying.

While McLaren have no significant upgrades on their car, Ferrari have brought seven new items including changes to the floor and diffuser.

"I think you have four teams that are on top of each other and as always it will be about execution," McLaren boss Zak Brown told Sky Sports television.

"Everyone knows this track. We test here a lot, so this weekend will show us how things might look like for the rest of the year."

RB's Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, who is looking for a big result this weekend to help his chances of nailing down a place in the team next year, finished 15th and 16th in his two sessions.