Spanish Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Lando Norris sets the fastest time ahead of Max Verstappen

Enough press conferences and interviews, it’s finally time for action at the Spanish Grand Prix. With a special feature for Friday’s FP1: young Oliver Bearman will drive Nico Hülkenberg’s car for Haas.

Valtteri Bottas is the first to hit the track on hard tires. Yuki Tsunoda is the first to set a time, but Max Verstappen is over six tenths faster than him, before George Russell arrives almost four tenths ahead, at 1:15.868. All drivers are currently on hard tires, except for Zhou, Magnussen, and Bearman on mediums. 8 minutes after the start of FP1, all drivers are out.

Carlos Sainz sets off for his first fast lap and shows great speed in the first sector, but less than Russell in the second sector. He finishes his lap second, only 0.031 seconds behind the Briton. Verstappen is even faster, with a gap of almost half a second to Russell. Are our hopes of competition already fading for this weekend?

Too much understeer

On his side, Oliver Bearman went a little too far on the rumble strip, but without consequences. Lando Norris will also go a little too wide at the final turn, blaming a lack of grip. It’s Charles Leclerc’s turn to start his fast lap, but he misses his first sector. He backs off and will set off for another fast lap after this one.

Sergio Perez is complaining of excessive understeer coming out of the corner and is wondering if there is an issue with the accelerator pedal. Charles Leclerc also complains about a horrible monoplace «. Meanwhile, they are working hard on the rear wing of Yuki Tsunoda’s car in the Visa Cash App RB garage.

25 minutes after the start of the session, Verstappen is still in the lead, followed by Russell, Sainz, Norris, and Hamilton. Practically everyone has entered the pits at this point, but they are gradually coming out. No one is chasing time in FP1, teams with upgrades are collecting data. Many are also complaining about understeer, with wind being a significant factor in certain corners.

Red flag in Free Practice 1 in Spain

Russell goes out on medium tires and is the fastest in sectors 2 and 3, while Sainz, also on mediums, is the fastest in the first sector. Sainz sets the fastest time with 1:14.572. Hamilton is very fast as well and sets the fastest time in the first sector on medium tires before finishing in 1:15.911, 4th, after making a small mistake. On soft tires, Verstappen positions himself at the front, with a time of 1:14.252, setting the best second and third sectors.

We passed the halfway mark and Lando Norris wakes up and sets the best first sector, on soft tires and places himself in front of everyone, in 1:14.228, only 0.024 seconds ahead of Verstappen. But a piece of carbon on the track may obstruct the cars. It comes from Fernando Alonso’s front wing, who hit a curb a little too hard at turn 9. So a red flag is triggered to remove it, just over 20 minutes before the end of FP1.

Out of the single-seaters, there is no argument about setting lap times. But Leclerc complains about Lance Stroll’s behavior in the middle of the corner as always. Later, coming back to the pit lane, the Monegasque complains about something weird with the clutch. Verstappen has the same comment about his car at the end of the session. Then it’s Pierre Gasly who tells his team that he can’t drive the car and he returns to the pits. We’ll leave it there, with Norris the fastest, followed by Verstappen, Sainz, Russell, and Sainz. Young Oliver Bearman is 19th.

The classification of Free Practice 1 at the Spanish Grand Prix.