Lando Norris topped the first practice session of the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Norris was 0.367s clear of Verstappen in second as Hamilton was 0.011s further down the road in third as McLaren were perhaps sending a message that the revised front wing did not hurt their car.
But then Oscar Piastri did not have a good session and was down in fifth, over half a second off the pace of his teammate while Charles Leclerc was fourth.
Both Racing Bulls drivers were in the top ten with Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar sixth and eighth respectively as they were split by the Haas of Oliver Bearman in seventh.
Yuki Tsunoda was ninth in the second Red Bull ahead of Pierre Gasly who was tenth in Alpine.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were 11th and 18th respectively, but unlike all the other top teams, the Mercedes drivers did not do any runs on the Soft tyres.
Local hero Fernando Alonso did not have a good session and was complaining about his car and was 13th fastest while the other Spanish hero, Carlos Sainz was down in 19th.
Ryo Hirakawa, driving for Haas was 17th as Victor Martins in the Williams was down in 19th.
Buildup towards FP1
And so we are in the final race of the European triple header, the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a classic track , nothing like Monaco Grand Prix, and while Barcelona doesn't allow much overtaking, there will be none of the ridiculousness we saw in the Monte Carlo.
But it will be an interesting weekend as the new regulations regarding front wing flexing will kick in as we wait and see whether that will effect the pecking order.
McLaren - supposedly targeted by that change - are adamant it would be business as usual for them and they did not even submit any car presentation documents on Friday. That doesn't mean they don't have a new front wing. They did but the change was minimal.
Red Bull Racing on the other hand have submitted their car presentation documents showing they have a new front wing responding to the changes in the regulations and so did Ferrari who also have a modified high downforce rear wing for Barcelona.
Mercedes did not mention any front wings in their submissions but revealed a revised floor edge, floor fences and track specific rear wing.
Aston Martin have a modified front wing as a response to the FIA changes while Alpine have only submitted new floor fences and a floor body.
Haas have a new front wing with an updated construction and so do Williams who also have revised rear brake ducts and new cooling louvres.
The Racing Bulls have a new front wing, with new endplates as well as a new nose while Sauber have a new engine cover, floor body and a front wing.
As for Pirelli they have gone hard with their tyre choices: C1 (Hard), C2 (Medium) and C3 (Soft). So no weird C6 tyres this weekend.
In terms of drivers, Alonso and Sainz should have a boost this weekend racing in front of their home crowd, the former having taken his last F1 win in Barcelona when driving for Ferrari back in 2013.
Esteban Ocon makes way for Hirakawa in the Haas while Martins replaces Alex Albon in the Williams.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in clear and sunny conditions with track temperatures at 48 degrees Celsius while the air temperature was 30 degrees.
Martins was the first driver out on track in the Williams car that was sporting some aero rakes as the team will be using the junior driver to collect some data.
Lawson in the VCARB also had the aero rakes fixed on his car.
Aside from Franco Colapinto and Lance Stroll who were on Medium tyres, all the other drivers kicked off practice on the Hard compound.
Russell reported that his steering felt "very light" while it was heavy when he exited the garage.
Soon Hirakawa lost control of the Haas and ended up in the gravel at Turn 10. He managed to rejoin.
Lawson soon came upon a slow-going Leclerc on track who didn't get out of the way. The Kiwi radioed: "What was that!?"
Verstappen, on the other hand was instructed a differential setting by his engineer but he disagreed.
"Diff mid-7, please" Gianpiero Lambiase radioed. "I'm not sure what I want, to be honest," Verstappen replied.
Almost 15 minutes in the session and there was not sign yet of Sainz out on track. TV footage showed him in his car and getting ready.
It seemed Williams were doing some work in the brakes - bleeding them - with the nose cone off.
Hamilton then had a moment with Hadjar on track at Turn 11. The former tried to overtake, but the latter closed the door. No contact though.
Colapinto went out of shape in Turn 7 his Alpine snapping and running hard on the kerbs. He shouldn't damage that new floor.
Halfway into the session, more drivers started changing tyres, with Russell first shifting to the Mediums and going to the top of the timings. Antonelli also switched to Mediums. Hulkenberg, Verstappen, Hamilton, and Leclerc switch to the Softs.
The above order was before Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren did their second runs. Leclerc went fastest, half a second clear of Russell then Verstappen went a tenth and a half faster than the Monegasque. Tsunoda went third on Softs as Hamilton went second fastest.
But then came the McLarens with Norris went faster than Verstappen with Piastri down in fifth as replay showed the Aussie dealing with a snap of oversteer in Turn 11.
Order with 25 minutes remaining: Norris - Verstappen - Hamilton - Leclerc - Piastri - Tsunoda.
Then started the long runs and soon Russell was complaining about his front left tyre which didn't "look good". He was on the Mediums. The Briton had some flow-vis on the read wing of his Mercedes.
Hirakawa also reported bouncing and bottoming on the entry of Turn 9. The engineer confirmed that Bearman in the other car was experiencing the same issue.
Alonso was having a discussion with his engineer about engine modes as complained about losing two tenths on the straight.
The Spaniard then asked his team to check what was going on with the car insisting something was wrong. He duly returned to the pits. He stepped out of his car with six minutes remaining.
Spanish GP FP1 Classification
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