SPANISH GP – Lando Norris fastest by a quarter of a second in first practice ahead of Max Verstappen
Lando Norris was fastest in the first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, the McLaren set a 14.228 on the soft tyre which put him nearly a quarter of a second faster than Max Verstappen. Norris set his fastest lap just after the halfway stage to which the four-time champion was unable to respond despite setting his time on the same compound.
The time came before a brief red-flag period when a body part flew off Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin through the high-speed Turn Nine and landed on the track. When the session restarted many switched to the long runs.
Verstappen preserved second after continuing to log soft-tyre runs before switching back to the hards, although reported that his clutch was entering into an anti-stall mode during the slower corners.
Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari third the Spaniard going just over three-tenths behind Verstappen, as he went four hundredths faster than George Russell. Only Sainz has the full Ferrari upgrade this weekend while Charles Leclerc has a particle upgrade but he could only go eleventh fastest.
The big question throughout this weekend is whether the gap has truly closed as the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya gives a really good picture of performance. Both Red Bull and Ferrari both have significant upgrades on their cars for the start of a run of five races in seven weeks before the summer break.
FP1 was never going to answer that question, as several teams used the hour as testing having brought upgrades to their cars for the weekend in Barcelona, while others were keen to maximise the updates that they had already introduced. Red Bull unveiled several upgrades and changes to the RB20 in first practice, although the biggest package introduced for this weekend is at Ferrari.
Sergio Perez went eight hundredths behind Russell and ahead of Oscar Piastri by over a quarter of a second while Lewis Hamilton was seventh. But the Mexican had complained of a throttle peddle issue. But the Mercedes driver was seven-tenths off the outright pace. The hour-long session was relatively incident-free session.
Esteban Ocon put his Alpine eighth two-tenths behind Hamilton, on the day the team announced its disgraced former team principal Flavio Briatore has returned to the team as executive adviser. Its an extraordinary return to the team after he was forced to resign in 2009, and was later banned over race fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
Alonso who benefited from the Crashgate scandal and is still managed by Briatore, put his Aston Martin ninth nearly a tenth and a half behind Ocon. Alex Albon put his Williams nearly two-tenths behind Alonso to complete the top ten.
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari eleventh missing out on the top ten by just under two hundredths. Valtteri Bottas put his Sauber twelfth ahead of Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll was fourteenth and Daniel Ricciardo fifteenth.
Guanyu Zhou was sixteenth going nearly three-tenths faster than Kevin Magnussen, as Logan Sargeant split the two Haas’s with Ollie Bearman just over a tenth off. While Yuki Tsunoda completed the field for RB.