F1 Spanish GP: Follow FP1 in Madrid with live timing

Lawson, also out on softs, goes purple in the middle sector and then does a personal best in the third, but it's still only good for 1m35.539s – 0.919s off Hamilton.

Leclerc and Hamilton now back in the pits after completing 14 and 15 laps in total. Leclerc had to get out of a push lap when he found Lewis dawdling in the middle of the road.

Russell goes around in 1m36.081s. That's P6 for now but what's interesting is that he put in quite a few purple mini-sectors in sector 3. 

Antonelli also aborts a lap where he went purple in sector two.

While we were looking at the soft runners, Hamilton popped in a 1m14.620 to go quickest of all on those mediums. All that with a flat spot on his right-front tyre, while his left-front tyre is starting to look uglier than a kebab shop fist fight. 

Looks like Russell aborted his first push lap just before La Monumental.

Antonelli out on softs as well.

Well, if teams are starting to think about qualifying simulations, this session might just be about to get interesting after a relatively cautious first 30 minutes.

Lawson and Russell now out on softs.

Lindblad chuntering over the radio about Hamilton and Antonelli forcing him to check up half way around La Monumental. In-car shot showed how hairy that moment was – like so many elements of this circuit, the sightlines aren't brilliant.

Leclerc goes faster still! 1m34.683s. Only the Ferraris in the 34s yet, by Antonelli (currently in the pits) isn't far off.

F1 TV picks up Lewis Hamilton's in-car camera for his fastest lap so far: 1m34.803s. Intriguingly, the lap was a trifle scruffy in places, particularly his entry to the tunnel section.

TV replays showing Bortoleto riding over the kerbs at the first chicane so that may have been the reason for his pit visit.

Bortoleto did six laps on those hards then popped into the pits for an adjustment and is now back out again.

Thanks to our chums at Getty Images we're getting the first action images through.

Photo by: Getty Images

Hamilton shaves off another fraction, 1m35.563s. Like a lot of the drivers at the sharp end he's on a continues stint, seven laps in at the time of writing.

Interesting to see that Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto have only done a single lap before returning to the pits.

Fastest lap so far is a 1m36.066s by Lewis Hamilton. Projections are for pole position to be below the 1m30s mark, possible even 1m27. But a lot of the simulations have been done without a properly accurate profile for all the kerbs, so that might not be the reality on the ground.

Plenty of fans here curious to see the spectacle of the new venue.

Fascinating to see the lap times ramp down so quickly at the sharp end. Currently 8.2s between Lewis Hamilton in P1 and Esteban Ocon in P19.

We hope they've got plenty of spare American Express banners in a cupboard somewhere because those decals on the exit of Turn 8 are going to be torn asunder more than once this weekend, we reckon.

Well this track offers a peculiar vista in terms of TV spectacle. Not much of a sense of place, apart from some of the twistier and undulating elements of Sector 2.

Just Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto still in the pits now. Everybody else out on medium Pirellis (C3), apart from Gabriel Bortoleto who is on the hards (C2).

And, more to the point, where will the first red flag be generated? We'd be surprised if it's not Turns 5/6, the second chicane, a really technical area with aggressive kerbs. Drivers will be tempted to be greedy here because a high corner speed will give them a good run onto the uphill section that follows.

So, readers, shall we place out bets on how long until the first red flag? And who will smite the barrier first? Be creative, don't just say "Lance Stroll"...

Hola from Madrid!

And it's a red letter day for grand prix racing in Spain as the country welcomes a new grand prix venue to the calendar. F1 last visited this region in 1981, when Gilles Villeneuve claimed a memorable victory for Ferrari, 'parking the bus' in the ill-handling car to keep a host of faster cars behind.

And also likely to be a red flag day, given the challenge of this circuit. Want to know more?