Grand Prix practice results: Hamilton fastest in Barcelona
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest overall time on the opening day of Spanish Grand Prix practice in Barcelona for Mercedes on Friday, the fourth round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.


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 | | ![]() | 25 | 1'18.504 | 213.466 | ||
2 | | ![]() | 19 | 1'18.537 | 0.033 | 0.033 | 213.377 |
3 | | ![]() | 22 | 1'18.627 | 0.123 | 0.090 | 213.132 |
4 | | ![]() | 24 | 1'18.944 | 0.440 | 0.317 | 212.277 |
5 | | ![]() | 25 | 1'18.996 | 0.492 | 0.052 | 212.137 |
6 | | ![]() | 22 | 1'19.020 | 0.516 | 0.024 | 212.072 |
7 | | ![]() | 26 | 1'19.062 | 0.558 | 0.042 | 211.960 |
8 | | ![]() | 24 | 1'19.234 | 0.730 | 0.172 | 211.500 |
9 | | ![]() | 17 | 1'19.349 | 0.845 | 0.115 | 211.193 |
10 | | ![]() | 25 | 1'19.429 | 0.925 | 0.080 | 210.980 |
11 | | ![]() | 22 | 1'19.669 | 1.165 | 0.240 | 210.345 |
12 | | ![]() | 25 | 1'19.681 | 1.177 | 0.012 | 210.313 |
13 | | ![]() | 23 | 1'19.694 | 1.190 | 0.013 | 210.279 |
14 | | ![]() | 24 | 1'19.732 | 1.228 | 0.038 | 210.179 |
15 | | ![]() | 25 | 1'19.950 | 1.446 | 0.218 | 209.606 |
16 | | ![]() | 25 | 1'20.270 | 1.766 | 0.320 | 208.770 |
17 | | ![]() | 23 | 1'20.700 | 2.196 | 0.430 | 207.657 |
18 | | ![]() | 23 | 1'20.766 | 2.262 | 0.066 | 207.488 |
19 | | ![]() | 13 | 1'21.887 | 3.383 | 1.121 | 204.647 |
20 | | ![]() | 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.
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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.
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Spanish Grand Prix FP2 results: Hamilton fastest from Bottas
Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | | ![]() | 32 | 1'18.170 | 214.378 | ||
2 | | ![]() | 31 | 1'18.309 | 0.139 | 0.139 | 213.998 |
3 | | ![]() | 28 | 1'18.335 | 0.165 | 0.026 | 213.927 |
4 | | ![]() | 29 | 1'18.466 | 0.296 | 0.131 | 213.570 |
5 | | ![]() | 30 | 1'18.518 | 0.348 | 0.052 | 213.428 |
6 | | ![]() | 32 | 1'18.593 | 0.423 | 0.075 | 213.225 |
7 | | ![]() | 30 | 1'18.619 | 0.449 | 0.026 | 213.154 |
8 | | ![]() | 30 | 1'18.674 | 0.504 | 0.055 | 213.005 |
9 | | ![]() | 26 | 1'18.785 | 0.615 | 0.111 | 212.705 |
10 | | ![]() | 23 | 1'18.918 | 0.748 | 0.133 | 212.346 |
11 | | ![]() | 30 | 1'18.947 | 0.777 | 0.029 | 212.268 |
12 | | ![]() | 28 | 1'19.092 | 0.922 | 0.145 | 211.879 |
13 | | ![]() | 29 | 1'19.122 | 0.952 | 0.030 | 211.799 |
14 | | ![]() | 29 | 1'19.134 | 0.964 | 0.012 | 211.767 |
15 | | ![]() | 28 | 1'19.195 | 1.025 | 0.061 | 211.604 |
16 | | ![]() | 30 | 1'19.213 | 1.043 | 0.018 | 211.556 |
17 | | ![]() | 29 | 1'19.957 | 1.787 | 0.744 | 209.587 |
18 | | ![]() | 26 | 1'20.046 | 1.876 | 0.089 | 209.354 |
19 | | ![]() | 30 | 1'20.326 | 2.156 | 0.280 | 208.624 |
20 | | ![]() | 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.
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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.
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