2024 Spanish Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 results (Barcelona)
Lando Norris topped the times in the first practice session at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix.
Lando Norris led the times in the first practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver popped in the fastest time of the first session in Barcelona, just pipping the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen to top spot
All eyes are on Red Bull this weekend, with the RB20 expected to re-establish some of the clear advantage the team had over their rivals as F1 returns to a more traditional race track and away from the street-style circuits raced on in recent weeks.
Verstappen duly showed his pace immediately on the hard tyre as he went quickest and stayed ahead for the first half of the session as the drivers enjoyed the warm weather conditions at the Montmelo circuit.
Fitting the medium tyre compound, George Russell went quickest ahead of Verstappen as the Mercedes driver popped in a 1:14.6. He was immediately usurped by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, by less than half a tenth, also on the mediums.
Red Bull opted for the soft tyres for their performance runs, with Sergio Perez slotting in behind Sainz and Russell, but Max Verstappen fared better by ramping up his pace through the lap and maintaining his tyres for the final sector. The championship leader did a 1:14.252 to go quickest.
But Norris, Verstappen’s nemesis of recent races, continued to show impressively as he also used the soft tyre to edge out the Dutch driver by just 0.024 seconds having gained his advantage through the first sector.
A brief red flag period then occurred as the marshals cleaned up some debris thrown from Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, with some bodywork being flicked off the AMR24 as the Spaniard ran over the kerbs at Turn 9.
With attention turning to longer runs after that, the timing screens remained stable at the front for the rest of the session – Norris duly finished ahead of Verstappen, Sainz, Russell, Perez, and Oscar Piastri.
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2024 Spanish Grand Prix – First Practice (FP1) Results:
- 1. Lando Norris McLaren 1:14.228
- 2. Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.024
- 3. Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.344
- 4. George Russell Mercedes +0.386
- 5. Sergio Perez Red Bull +0.464
- 6. Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.639
- 7. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.683
- 8. Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.858
- 9. Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.994
- 10. Alex Albon Williams +1.189
- 11. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.206
- 12. Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1.244
- 13. Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.256
- 14. Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.284
- 15. Daniel Ricciardo RB +1.352
- 16. Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1.388
- 17. Kevin Magnussen Haas +1.416
- 18. Logan Sargeant Williams +1.524
- 19. Oliver Bearman Haas +1.637
- 20. Yuki Tsunoda RB +1.688
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