Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari one-two in the opening practice session at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday.
In the baking afternoon sun in Barcelona, the Monegasque would post a 1m19.828s to finish 0.08s clear of teammate Carlos Sainz in a promising start for the Scuderia.
Max Verstappen was three-tenths behind in third for Red Bull but had been faster in the first two sectors before traffic delayed him in the twisty final sequence of corners.
On a weekend when Mercedes finally hopes to start extracting the potential from their W13, George Russell sat seven-tenths behind Leclerc in fourth with Lewis Hamilton sixth as his best lap was disrupted by a faulty DRS flap.
Solid start to the #SpanishGP weekend! 👏 Bring on FP2! pic.twitter.com/isAkkGPNIK
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 20, 2022
While both drivers reported a reduction in porpoising, as was the case in Miami, finding the right balance proved the main issue for both Silver Arrows.
Home favourite Fernando Alonso pipped Hamilton into fifth for Alpine, but the Spaniard might be in trouble after forcing the Mercedes wide at Turn 12.
A promising session for McLaren saw Lando Norris in the upgraded car finish seventh, half a second clear of Daniel Ricciardo in the old-spec MCL36 in ninth.
Pierre Gasly split the Papaya machines in eight with AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda completing the top 10.
Aston Martin's Red Bull-style upgrades have been the talk of the paddock so far in Spain, but it was a quiet first session for the team in P12 and P16 for Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel respectively.
Checking in as we reach the final 20 minutes of FP1. 👊 #LS18 ➡️ 1:21.920 | 14 Laps#SV5 ➡️ 1:24.353 | 13 Laps#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/0oSJdyegCV
— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) May 20, 2022
Likewise, Alfa Romeo also had a raft of new parts to test and reserve driver Robert Kubica would finish 13th in his first FP1 outing of the year, six-tenths faster than Valtteri Bottas in a lowly 17th.
Haas is the only team to bring no updates to Barcelona and that perhaps showed with Kevin Magnussen 14th and Mick Schumacher 15th.
Formula E champion Nyck De Vries outpaced Nicholas Latifi in his first FP1 session for Williams, while another young driver, Red Bull junior Yuri Vips, brought up the field.
Full results from Practice 1 can be seen below:
🏁 CLASSIFICATION (60/60 MINS) 🏁
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 20, 2022
Our first session of the weekend is done!#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/u1PFphtLQ1
