Grand Prix practice results: Hamilton fastest in Barcelona

Both Friday practice sessions have each been cut to one hour in 2021, instead of the usual 90 minutes each. FP1 was topped by Bottas, and teammate Lewis Hamilton was fastest in FP2 – which was faster than the morning session.

Spanish Grand Prix FP1 results: Bottas fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Valtteri Bottas		25	1'18.504			213.466
2	Max Verstappen		19	1'18.537	0.033	0.033	213.377
3	Lewis Hamilton		22	1'18.627	0.123	0.090	213.132
4	Lando Norris		24	1'18.944	0.440	0.317	212.277
5	Charles Leclerc		25	1'18.996	0.492	0.052	212.137
6	Carlos Sainz Jr.		22	1'19.020	0.516	0.024	212.072
7	Pierre Gasly		26	1'19.062	0.558	0.042	211.960
8	Sebastian Vettel		24	1'19.234	0.730	0.172	211.500
9	Sergio Perez		17	1'19.349	0.845	0.115	211.193
10	Lance Stroll		25	1'19.429	0.925	0.080	210.980
11	Yuki Tsunoda		22	1'19.669	1.165	0.240	210.345
12	Esteban Ocon		25	1'19.681	1.177	0.012	210.313
13	Antonio Giovinazzi		23	1'19.694	1.190	0.013	210.279
14	Daniel Ricciardo		24	1'19.732	1.228	0.038	210.179
15	Fernando Alonso		25	1'19.950	1.446	0.218	209.606
16	Nicholas Latifi		25	1'20.270	1.766	0.320	208.770
17	Roy Nissany		23	1'20.700	2.196	0.430	207.657
18	Mick Schumacher		23	1'20.766	2.262	0.066	207.488
19	Robert Kubica		13	1'21.887	3.383	1.121	204.647
20	Nikita Mazepin		22	1'21.976	3.472	0.089	204.425
View full results

What happened in Spanish GP Free Practice 1?

Teams began their run programmes evaluating the hard tyre, with Hamilton setting the pace on the rubber at 1m19.675s. That lap was four tenths faster than Red Bull's Max Verstappen managed on the same compound and a second quicker than Bottas at the time.

Haas’s Nikita Mazepin suffered an early half spin at Turn 8 but managed to reverse his car out of the gravel trap.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel topped the times at half distance, as he was one of the first to run the soft tyre and lapped in 1m19.234s. Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners on the compound and lowered the target time to 1m18.808s.

Read Also:

• Vettel "more at home" with Aston Martin car after upgrades

Bottas was forced to abort his first lap, after understeering wide at Turn 3, but he regrouped to lap in 1m18.838s. Hamilton improved again to 1m18.627s but Bottas went even faster on his final run, producing a 1m18.504s.

This was also the first F1 session with the reprofiled Turn 10, which didn’t cause drivers any problems until Friday tester Robert Kubica spun his Alfa Romeo into the gravel there with 15 minutes to go.

The session restarted with less than 10 minutes on the clock, which is when the Red Bulls ran the soft tyre for the first time. Verstappen had to abandon his first flyer due to traffic, and then went P2 at his second attempt at 1m18.537s, 0.033s off pacesetter Bottas.

In the closing moments there were plenty of cars tripping over rivals, and Bottas was forced to go on to the grass at the final chicane to avoid one dawdling car.

Hamilton stayed third, 0.123s slower than Bottas, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Pierre Gasly was seventh for AlphaTauri, ahead of Vettel – who enjoyed his best session of 2021 as an Aston driver.

Sergio Perez was only ninth in the second Red Bull but was baulked badly by Daniel Ricciardo on his best lap.

Read Also:

• Spanish GP: Bottas leads Verstappen by 0.033s in FP1
• Hamilton 'amazed' by McLaren, Ferrari F1 progress

Spanish Grand Prix FP2 results: Hamilton fastest from Bottas

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton		32	1'18.170			214.378
2	Valtteri Bottas		31	1'18.309	0.139	0.139	213.998
3	Charles Leclerc		28	1'18.335	0.165	0.026	213.927
4	Esteban Ocon		29	1'18.466	0.296	0.131	213.570
5	Fernando Alonso		30	1'18.518	0.348	0.052	213.428
6	Pierre Gasly		32	1'18.593	0.423	0.075	213.225
7	Yuki Tsunoda		30	1'18.619	0.449	0.026	213.154
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.		30	1'18.674	0.504	0.055	213.005
9	Max Verstappen		26	1'18.785	0.615	0.111	212.705
10	Sergio Perez		23	1'18.918	0.748	0.133	212.346
11	Sebastian Vettel		30	1'18.947	0.777	0.029	212.268
12	Lando Norris		28	1'19.092	0.922	0.145	211.879
13	Antonio Giovinazzi		29	1'19.122	0.952	0.030	211.799
14	Lance Stroll		29	1'19.134	0.964	0.012	211.767
15	Daniel Ricciardo		28	1'19.195	1.025	0.061	211.604
16	Kimi Raikkonen		30	1'19.213	1.043	0.018	211.556
17	George Russell		29	1'19.957	1.787	0.744	209.587
18	Nicholas Latifi		26	1'20.046	1.876	0.089	209.354
19	Mick Schumacher		30	1'20.326	2.156	0.280	208.624
20	Nikita Mazepin		27	1'20.753	2.583	0.427	207.521
View full results

What happened in Spanish GP Free Practice 2?

In FP2, Verstappen set the early pace at 1m19.041s as the medium tyre proved the most popular. Bottas topped that with 1m18.419s with Hamilton just 0.042s behind – six tenths up on Verstappen.

A virtual safety car was required after 10 minutes due to a piece of Sainz’s Ferrari coming off on the exit of Turn 9. Yuki Tsunoda also had a big moment at Turn 9, and his trip over the kerbs briefly switched his car off.

After 20 minutes, Mercedes switched to the soft tyres, with Hamilton recording 1m18.170s, 0.139s faster than Bottas. Leclerc went third fastest, 0.165s off the pace, ahead of the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.

Read Also:

• Wolff: Red Bull approached 100 Mercedes F1 engine staff
• Domenicali: "Robust" F1 will survive Hamilton retirement

Gasly and Tsunoda were sixth and seventh, both within half a second of the pace and outpacing the senior Red Bull squad, ahead of Sainz.

Verstappen had a big moment at the exit of Turn 10, which ruined his first flying lap on softs – and ran wide later during his race simulation at Turn 8. His best medium-tyred time stood for ninth fastest, ahead of Perez’s best on the soft.

Verstappen ended the session with a damaged front wing endplate.

Read Also:

• Spanish GP: Hamilton tops FP2 from Bottas, Leclerc