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Charles Bradley

F1 Grand Prix practice results: Leclerc fastest on Spanish GP Friday

Leclerc was quickest in both FP1 and FP2, ahead of Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen across the two one-hour sessions.

Spanish Grand Prix FP1 results: Leclerc fastest from Sainz

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 27 1'19.828    
2 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 27 1'19.907 0.079 0.079
3 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 28 1'20.164 0.336 0.257
4 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 28 1'20.590 0.762 0.426
5 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 24 1'20.768 0.940 0.178
6 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 27 1'20.811 0.983 0.043
7 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 24 1'21.279 1.451 0.468
8 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 23 1'21.422 1.594 0.143
9 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 23 1'21.737 1.909 0.315
10 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 28 1'21.814 1.986 0.077
11 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 26 1'21.891 2.063 0.077
12 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 23 1'21.920 2.092 0.029
13 Poland Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo 20 1'21.975 2.147 0.055
14 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 16 1'22.089 2.261 0.114
15 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 21 1'22.146 2.318 0.057
16 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 20 1'22.164 2.336 0.018
17 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 25 1'22.614 2.786 0.450
18 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Williams 28 1'22.920 3.092 0.306
19 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 27 1'23.011 3.183 0.091
20 Estonia Jüri Vips Red Bull 23 1'24.138 4.310 1.127

What happened in Spanish GP Free Practice 1?

After early running on the hard tyres, Sainz set the bar on softs at 1m19.907s. That looked set to be toppled by Verstappen, who set the fastest first two sectors when he came across a huge amount of traffic towards the end of the lap.

Verstappen still managed 1m20.164s to go second to Sainz but then Leclerc beat them both with a session-topping 1m19.828s effort to make it a Ferrari 1-2.

Russell was best of the rest for Mercedes, lapping 0.762s off the pace on 1m20.590s. He later had a big moment when he came across the second Red Bull, driven for the first time in FP1 by F2 racer Juri Vips.

Fernando Alonso made it two local heroes in the top five, lapping his Alpine in 1m20.768s, just ahead of the second Mercedes of Hamilton – who almost had to go off track when he caught Alonso before the final corner sequence.

Both Alonso and Vips were later handed reprimands by the FIA stewards.

McLaren and AlphaTauri shared the rest of the top 10 spots, with Lando Norris ahead of Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.

Robert Kubica also got an outing for Alfa Romeo, setting the 13th fastest time, with Nyck de Vries making his Williams debut and just outpacing Nicholas Latifi to 18th.

Spanish Grand Prix FP2 results: Leclerc fastest from Russell

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 29 1'19.670    
2 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 27 1'19.787 0.117 0.117
3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 26 1'19.874 0.204 0.087
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 31 1'19.990 0.320 0.116
5 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 27 1'20.006 0.336 0.016
6 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 26 1'20.203 0.533 0.197
7 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 30 1'20.632 0.962 0.429
8 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 31 1'20.703 1.033 0.071
9 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 27 1'20.745 1.075 0.042
10 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 25 1'20.757 1.087 0.012
11 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 28 1'20.917 1.247 0.160
12 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 24 1'21.013 1.343 0.096
13 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 32 1'21.249 1.579 0.236
14 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 29 1'21.285 1.615 0.036
15 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 22 1'21.385 1.715 0.100
16 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 3 1'21.828 2.158 0.443
17 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 30 1'21.866 2.196 0.038
18 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 31 1'22.319 2.649 0.453
19 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 25 1'23.197 3.527 0.878
20 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 6 1'23.388 3.718 0.191

What happened in Spanish GP Free Practice 2?

Teams ran medium tyres at the beginning of this session, with Verstappen leading the way on 1m20.932s, 0.046s ahead of Sainz and 0.063s quicker than Leclerc – the latter suffering a scruffy end to his lap.

Sebastian Vettel was the first to set a time on softs in his updated Aston Martin, which has been the talk of the paddock today, setting the bar at 1m20.703s. That was soon beaten by Verstappen on 1m20.006s.

Sainz pipped Verstappen’s time by 0.016s on 1m19.990s, before Leclerc convincingly beat them both with 1m19.670s.

Russell then got to within 0.117s of Leclerc’s fastest time on 1m19.787s, with Hamilton two tenths off the pace in third.

Alonso was sixth in this session, ahead of Sergio Perez (back in the second Red Bull), Vettel, Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Mick Schumacher (Haas).

Sainz and Alex Albon (Williams) had a spat after Turn 1, which stewards will investigate after the session. Lando Norris and Albon both had big moments and ran wide at Turn 9.

Valtteri Bottas was an early casualty when “something broke” on his Alfa Romeo, forcing him to stop at Turn 1.

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