Sky Sports analysts: "Red Bull about 0.15s per lap on average further back"

At Sky Sports they are convinced that Mercedes have the upper hand in Spain after the first day of the Grand Prix weekend. The German stable had the best Friday of the year according to team boss Toto Wolff and that has resulted in the W12 looking faster than Max Verstappen's RB16B in both qualifying and race trim.

In terms of speed, David Croft expects Hamilton and Bottas to have the fastest car on Sunday. He bases this on data from the second free practice session. "Mercedes with the best pace, then Red Bull about 0.15s per lap on average further back, then the same 0.15s back to Ferrari and Alpine. But the latter two do tend to run a bit lighter on a Friday."

Croft does mention that the formations of Mattia Binotto and Luca de Meo respectively drive with an empty fuel tank more often on Friday than the competition does. Fellow Anthony Davidson also saw a stronger Mercedes: "I think Mercedes are ahead but I don't think it's quite as big a gap over Red Bull as the lap times suggest in that session."