George Russell has topped the timing charts in the first practice session at this weekend's Spanish GP, ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc. Russell's lap time of 1:34.077
was enough to edge out Antonelli after Madrid's first taste of
F1 action since 1981, taking place at the daunting new semi-street circuit, the Madring.
Track action got swiftly underway, with times tumbling all throughout the first ten minutes.
Lewis Hamilton in particular impressed, putting his
Ferrari over a second ahead of
Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli after the first few flying laps.
Hamilton was the first driver to enter the 1:34s after yet another impressive lap just after the 20-minute mark but his teammate Leclerc went even faster still with a 1:34.683 - just over a tenth ahead of Hamilton and a further three tenths up on championship leader Antonelli.
With just over 20 minutes to go, the grid began to move onto the soft tyres - although Antonelli's first flyer on the compound was not enough to beat the Ferraris, as Hamilton improved to retake top spot from Leclerc by just 0.06s. Antonelli's teammate, however, was quick to get up to speed on the softs - Russell went over five tenths up on Hamilton with his 1:34.077.
By session's end, Antonelli had improved to leapfrog the Ferraris, but his best time was still over two tenths down on his teammate Russell.
Elsewhere, Red Bull and
McLaren seemed to struggle at the Madring with Max Verstappen six tenths off the pace in P5, just ahead of
Lando Norris a further two tenths down. Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri finished P8 just over a second off Russell's earlier benchmark time, and appeared to encounter problems with his McLaren's footwell with just over five minutes to go.
Perhaps the most surprising thing to come out of FP1 was the lack of red flags at the high-speed semi-street circuit. While there were several kisses to the walls, there were fortunately no repeats of
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak's crash in the F2 practice session earlier in the day.
Here are the full results from FP1 at the Spanish GP:
| P | Driver | Team | Gap |
| P1 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:34.077 |
| P2 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +0.2s |
| P3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.4s |
| P4 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +0.5s |
| P5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | +0.6s |
| P6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +0.8s |
| P7 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | +0.9s |
| P8 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +1.0s |
| P9 | Nico Hülkenberg | Audi | +1.4s |
| P10 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull Racing | +1.4s |
| P11 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | +1.5s |
| P12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +1.6s |
| P13 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | +1.7s |
| P14 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | +1.8s |
| P15 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +2.3s |
| P16 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | +2.6s |
| P17 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | +2.7s |
| P18 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | +2.8s |
| P19 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +3.1s |
| P20 | Alexander Albon | Williams | +3.5s |
| P21 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | +4.0s |
| P22 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | +4.7s |