Verstappen tops FP1 as old Ferrari spec beats upgraded version

Max Verstappen finished comfortably fastest in the first free practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix near Barcelona. Even his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was over seven-tenths down. Charles Leclerc, who ran the older Ferrari spec, was slightly faster than Carlos Sainz in the upgraded version. Esteban Ocon retained his third-place position for the third consecutive session. 

Red Bull Racing were comfortably the quickest throughout the whole session. With 15 minutes to go, the session produced one of the strangest leaderboards of the season. Both Alfa Romeo cars sat inside the top three, with Magnussen and Piastri also inside the top eight. Sainz got his chance to push with the new upgrades inside the final 15 minutes. Leclerc followed and went very slightly quicker.

Mercedes sat P19 and P20 going into the final 10 minutes, and they were joined by both Aston Martin drivers at that point. Both Aston Martin and Mercedes had quicker runs right at the end of the session, but neither could get within nine-tenths of Verstappen. Nyck de Vries and both Alpine drivers managed to finish ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes. 

Debuts galore! 

The Ferrari upgrades made their debut during this session. There is a major concept change to their sidepods as they look to close the gap on Red Bull. Charles Leclerc ran with the old wing whilst Sainz had the new wing giving them a good correlation of data. Their rivals Aston Martin also introduced upgrades, and Alonso carried the aero rake on his first lap around his home circuit. 

Most other teams, including Aston Martin and Mercedes, introduced small changes to their cars, but none were more visible than the Italian team. Pirelli also had a debut of their own. The more robust tyres that are being introduced from the British Grand Prix onwards were tested. 

And even the track introduced a change, though it wasn’t a debut. The chicane had disappeared for the first time since 2006, and now drivers use the outside loop. This shaves around five seconds off the lap time. Both Red Bull drivers reported bouncing in this final corner, as it seems likely to dictate ride height. 

Red Bull were the first to start pushing on the soft tyres. Verstappen finished around seven-tenths faster than his teammate on the first run. He didn’t stay flat through the final corner, but the telemetry suggested it would be possible come Q3 on Saturday.