Norris tops FP1 to continue McLaren’s advantage ahead of Verstappen

McLaren’s Lando Norris has topped first practice at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix, having headed Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona.

Friday’s hot opening session was used as a testing ground for various upgrades across most of the teams, as well as the first session in which cars ran stiffer front wings to comply with the FIA’s latest technical directive.

As such, the first half hour of the session was largely run on Pirelli’s hardest C1 compound, as teams completed correlation work to trial their new parts and match them with existing simulation data.

Teams also tested steel skid blocks in a bid to find solutions to the grass fires which plagued April’s Japanese Grand Prix, and were believed to be caused by hot sparks coming off the existing titanium skids.

In order to gather data, one car per team trialled the steel skids on Friday, which are believed to be 750 grams heavier and wear quicker.

Home hero Fernando Alonso led the early running on hard rubber, before Norris took over. But times started becoming more representative after the 30-minute halfway mark, as evidenced by Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg temporarily taking second.

On soft tyres, Charles Leclerc went top before being overhauled by reigning champion Verstappen and then Norris, whose 1m13.718s was over three tenths clear of the Red Bull driver.

Hamilton was third ahead of Ferrari team-mate Leclerc, as the Scuderia trialled substantial updates with the second McLaren of championship leader Oscar Piastri in fifth.

Liam Lawson continued Racing Bull’s competitive trajectory with sixth ahead of Haas rookie Oliver Bearman and Lawson’s team-mate Isack Hadjar. Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

FP1 ran without major incidents, though Haas stand-in Ryo Hirakawa took an innocent gravel trip excursion. It was the latest free practice outing for Toyota’s WEC driver, this time instead of Esteban Ocon, and he finished 17th. 

The other reserve driver on FP1 duties was F2 frontrunner Victor Martins, who took over Alex Albon’s Williams for the session and finished 19th.

F1 Spanish Grand Prix – FP1 results