Two Ferraris in front with the new package of updates in the first free practice session of the Spanish GP, but the fans of the Cavallino must not be fooled, because Max Verstappen in the only attempt with soft tires found a lot of traffic in the last part of the track of Barcelona, so the 336 thousandths that separate Charles Leclerc from the Dutch world champion must not be misled.
Leclerc with the F1-75 easily reached 1’19 “828, once obtained with the C3 compound, while in the winter tests Lewis Hamilton had reached 1’19” 134 being able to use softer tires. The Ferraris accused a bit of annoying oversteer when they mounted the hard tires (race tires) before changes were made to the setup according to the innovations introduced on the reds and a much better top speed was also seen.
Carlos Sainz came within 79 thousandths of his teammate, drawing equal impressions from the car, a sign that Ferrari seems to be adapting well to the Spanish track. Verstappen preferred to do a mini long run to collect data for the race and gave up a second flying lap that he will look for in the afternoon, but the feeling is that we have essentially seen a draw, at least for now. Max is under observation for a bad impediment against George Russell who risked rear-ending Red Bull: the Dutchman cannot always be forgiven for his intemperance!
Yuri Vips, a young F2 driver who took the wheel of Sergio Perez, got on the second Red Bull: the rookie was instructed to carry out cornering tests with the wheel used with the maximum angle at turns 4, 5 and 10 to force power steering and see if the troubles that bothered Verstappen in the past were repeated.
The boy was last of the last with a gap of about 10 seconds, but then at the end of the session they let him free and moved within a second of Nicholas Latifi, 19th, preceded by another rookie, Nick De Vries called on Williams in place by Alexander Albon. The FE champion immediately showed his qualities, fueling rumors of his possible future promotion to the Grove team.
Fourth place was taken by George Russell with the renewed Mercedes. The Englishman left Lewis Hamilton in sixth place, over two tenths behind. Fernando Alonso slipped between the two with a good Alpine. The question is: has the W13 taken a step forward? In driveability certainly yes, but in performance it pays the usual seven tenths of all time. Bad signal …
Lando Norris is seventh with the new McLaren: the Woking team reserved the changes for him, while Daniel Ricciardo, ninth, rode with the standard version MCL36. The half second of difference indicates that the path taken is the right one.
Among the papaya cars there is Pierre Gasly with the AlphaTauri, while Yuki Tsunoda closes the top 10. Esteban Ocon is 11th with the second A522 ahead of Lance Stroll with the Aston Martin increasingly similar to Red Bull. The Canadian’s greenback ran smoothly, while Sebastian Vettel had some problems for a car that was finished at the last minute.
Well Robert Kubica on the Alfa Romeo left by the Chinese Zhou: the Pole after having worked as a test driver allowed himself a lap with which he trimmed Valtteri Bottas six tenths. The Finndese is 17th, but he did not look for performance, preferring to understand the C42 which introduces several new features.
The two Haas pilots defended themselves with Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher equaling in 14th and 15th places, despite having no updates on the VF-22.
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