F1 Spanish GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Updates from F1 Friday practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
After a week break, F1 returns to action back in Europe for the Spanish GP.
Charles Leclerc leads the F1 drivers’ standings by 19 points from Max Verstappen following the Dutch driver’s Miami GP victory last time out, as Ferrari heads the teams’ standings by just six points from Red Bull.
An extensive range of upgrades have been delivered by almost every F1 team, which could shake-up the pecking order as teams push on with the development of the new cars.
Opening practice for the Spanish GP gets underway at 1.00pm BST (2.00pm local time), followed by second practice which starts at 4.00pm BST (5.00pm local time).
Live Standings
presented by
Stopped
Summary
Live Text
Sort by
Oldest first
Hola! F1's back for the sixth round of the season - the Spanish Grand Prix - and we'll be with you all weekend long. Coming up: FP1.
As always, we'll have live updates, info, and everything else you could possibly need as the opening practice session at Barcelona gets under way.
Breaking news
We've got two new faces in the car for this session too. Juri Vips will be in the Red Bull for this session in place of Sergio Perez, while Nyck de Vries jumps into Alex Albon's Williams.
We'll have our first look at some of the new upgrades on show - Aston Martin, McLaren and Alfa Romeo have probably brought the most new bits along with them. As is tradition, at this circuit.
For those new to the drivers in FP1, Juri Vips currently races in F2 with Hitech and is a multiple race winner. De Vries, meanwhile, is an F2 and Formula E champion. He's also done a bit of endurance racing and impressed in an IndyCar test for Meyer Shank Racing. So, lots of pedigree.
Breaking news
While I'm here, I might as well self-indulgently plug my de Vries feature - as we had a chat in Berlin last weekend: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/why-de-vries-f1-practice-debut-could-add-a-new-path-to-his-current-crossroads/10306024/
Robert Kubica is also in the car for Alfa Romeo, taking over from Zhou Guanyu. Valtteri Bottas will have all of Alfa's new updates for this round, Zhou has some of them.
According to F1, "we are expecting attendance of 110k each day which is sold out so total of 330k for the weekend". Lots of excitement for Barcelona, which is a nice change!
Sun
It's quite hot too - there's an air temperature of 29 degrees C, with the track pushing 46 degrees C. For us, sun's out; puns out.
Green flag
And we're away for FP1! Vettel out first from Vips, Sainz and de Vries.
Stopwatch
De Vries kicks us off with a 1m27.438s, but that's quickly brushed aside by Sainz and Gasly.
Stopwatch
Leclerc gets into the 1m23s off the bat, but Verstappen posts a 1m23.163s to go top.
Almost a full house, as Vettel's got a massive aero rake on the car to look at Aston Martin's all new updates.
De Vries has a bit of a lock-up in the final sector, as he contends with the tricky chicane. It's arguably a Formula E chicane anyway, so he'll get used to it swiftly.
Stopwatch
Leclerc powers to a 1m22.820s, going top, before Verstappen one-ups him with a 1m22.693s.
Sainz got into third, briefly, but Ricciardo's now ahead of him. The Australian's kicked off on the medium tyres, with Sainz on hards.
Stopwatch
Not much running down at Haas at the moment, as both cars are in the pits and taking a few set-up tweaks. Meanwhile, Verstappen raises the bar with a 1m22.394s.
Gasly, on mediums, gets up to P3 as Alonso moves into fourth, but they're usurped by Sainz who improves to get within 0.7s of Verstappen's time. The Dutchman, meanwhile, is currently complaining about his mirrors.
Ricciardo's now back in P3, on a 1m23.011, as Leclerc posts a 1m22.746s to get closer to Verstappen.
Stopwatch
It's a 1m22.143s for Verstappen now, who's looking very comfortable at this stage of the day at the top.
A reminder that the fastest time in testing earlier this year was a 1m19.138s from Lewis Hamilton, but that was on the softest compound available.
Vips had faced a bit of a lay-off in the garage in the first part of the session, but the Juri's out on track again. The venerable Stuart Codling told me to write this.
Quote
"Something broke, between my back and the seat," Tsunoda reports on the radio, while Ocon complains that "I can't turn the car". A few gremlins returning from lunch, it seems...
“Autosport generally operates with an unofficial rule of three before reporting unusual trackside occurrences (shunts or incidences or cars breaking down naturally not included). By this measure, it's Leclerc attracting attention in the Ferrari. On these hard tyres in the scorching sun, he’s repeatedly and properly having to fight for second and third-gear traction out of Turn 10 as the rear constantly wants to wiggle under power."
Stopwatch
Verstappen did a 1m21.876s earlier on, by the way, continuing to wind the times down.
It's got a little quieter as we approach the half-way mark, with both Alfas, both Haases and Vettel on the road.
There's more activity now on the track, albeit with none of the current top five of Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell, Ricciardo and Gasly on the road. Sainz has just headed out to get more mileage for Ferrari.
De Vries moves up to fourth on the soft tyre, a 1m22.936s. "Track position wasn't great, was in traffic the whole last sector," he says. Sainz has kicked off his soft running on a hot lap, going quickest in sector 1.
Stopwatch
There's a 1m19.907s for Sainz on the softs, so that's P1 for the Ferrari driver.
Norris and Tsunoda now do soft times, in the 1m21s, but it looks like they're not pushing as hard as Sainz was - with a slathering of aero paint on Norris' McLaren.
Russell goes P2 on a 1m20.590s, 0.6s down on Sainz, as Hamilton posts a 1m20.811s.
It seems Alonso's accidentally gone out on the medium tyres, so he comes in to pit for presumably softs.
Verstappen sets purple sectors in 1 and 2, but gets an M25's worth of traffic in the last sector so can't overhaul Sainz. About three tenths lost there.
Stopwatch
Hamilton meanwhile has to take to the kerb/gravel to clear a slow Alonso, which looked like a bumpy ride. Leclerc now goes top with a 1m19.828s.
Vips is continuing to circulate - he's last but he's not been chasing any laptime, instead doing some tyre work for Red Bull.
With just under 15 minutes left, it's Leclerc from Sainz, Verstappen, Russell, Alonso, Hamilton, Norris, Gasly, Ricciardo and Tsunoda. Gasly improves, but remains in P8 for now.
Breaking news
Incident between Hamilton and Alonso under investigation for impeding - presumably relating the incident earlier.
Breaking news
There's also a Verstappen and Bottas impeding incident under investigation, so another thing to keep an eye on.
Five minutes to go, and it's last orders for FP1. Russell's been impeded a bit by Vips, so lots of drivers getting in the way of each other in this session.
By: autosport.com
Published:
Page:
