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

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 13^th-fastest time, with Nyck de Vries making his Williams debut and just outpacing Nicholas Latifi to 18^th.

Spanish Grand Prix FP2 results: Leclerc fastest from Russell

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

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.