Max Verstappen lead a Red Bull one-two in first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, the Dutchmen set an ominous pace with a 14.606 going seven tenths faster than teammate Sergio Perez. Red Bull look to be the favourites going into this weekends race in Barcelona.
Red Bull know that the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalyuna favours cars which has favoured cars with good straight line speed and cornering abilities and this weekend have upgrades as they look to dominate. But Verstappen’s eight tenths advantage over Esteban Ocon shows the huge challenge the rest of the grid faces in 2023.
The Dutchman, who has won four of the opening six races as he seeks a third successive drivers’ title, appeared in a league of his own, but did complain over radio about a particular mode that was causing issues with his engine.
Ocon continued to show the strong performance for Alpine going third, five hundredths behind Perez. Nyck de Vries managed to spilt the two Alpine’s, the Dutchman briefly going third before Ocon went eight hundredths faster shortly after. Pierre Gasly was four hundredths behind de Vries, this season the French manufacturer has shown flashes of speed this season but has struggled to get it together in the race.
Fernando Alonso was sixth nine tenths off, Aston Martin’s upgrades this weekend have mainly focused on the front and rear wings. Gasly also had a brief moment at La Casa (Turn Ten) late in the session when he tried to pass the Williams of Logan Sargeant. Kevin Magnussen moved ahead of the Ferrari’s late in the session going seventh, the Dane going five hundredths faster.
Charles Leclerc going four hundredths faster than teammate Carlos Sainz. but Ferrari made an interesting decision to run one of their cars with new sidepods and the other with the iteration they have been using so far this season. Charles Leclerc, using the older bodywork, finished a place ahead of teammate Sainz in eighth.
Ferrari and Mercedes both brought upgrades for this weekend, though its not clear after one practice if they are genuinely this far of the pace or the more likely scenario that they were using the session to test upgrades in a quiet session for both teams. George Russell rounded out the top ten, the Mercedes driver nearly three hundredths behind Sainz.
Mercedes also ran a different run plan to what you would normally expect, the drivers sat at thew bottom of the times until the final ten minutes, they then moved up Russell to tenth and Lewis Hamilton to twelfth. But both were over a second off the Red Bull’s.
The session also saw the trialling of new tougher tyres, which are set to come into official use at the British Grand Prix in July as tyre manufacturer Pirelli attempt to keep pace with the unexpectedly fast rate of car development.
Lando Norris managed to split the two Mercedes and his fellow Englishmen, he was three hundredths behind Russell and ahead of Hamilton by four hundredths of a second. Mercedes brought upgrades last weekend, they were originally intended for Imola which was cancelled due to the flooding, and last weekend in Monaco wasn’t the best for understanding upgrades.
For this weekend’s race the circuit has been returned to a layout closer to the original layout with the chicane in the final sector removed. But it appears that one of the big questions is yet to be answered, whether the last corner (Catalyuna) would be taken flat out.
Many drivers – including the Red Bull pair – were complaining that their cars were “bouncing” going into the final corner. The introduction of the ground effect cars brought back the porpoising, while it hasn’t been a big issue this season the high speed nature of Barcelona was likely.
Guanyu Zhou was thirteenth nearly a hundredth faster than Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll. Zhou’s Alfa Romeo teammate Valtteri Bottas was nearly five hundredths behind in sixteenth. Oscar Piastri was ahead of Nico Hulkenberg by a tenth as the two Williams rounding out the field. Logan Sargeant a tenth and a quarter ahead of teammate Alex Albon
