@ValtteriBottas pips #Vettel in FP1. #F1 #SpanishGP

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas topped Free Practice 1 at the Spanish Grand Prix pipping Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel as the session ended due to a red flag.

Bottas set the benchmark of a 1:17.951 on the red-marked soft compounds and ahead of Ferrari duo Vettel by 0.115 seconds and Charles Leclerc a further 0.221 behind the Finn in third.

The Finns session ended early however due to an oil leak, which caused the temporary shutdown to his F1 W10 EQ Power+ racer with the Brackley-based outfit investigating the issue.

The other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was fourth and over half a tenth behind his FP1 leading team-mate with the Briton complaining of “terrible” tyre preparations..

Vettel hit the top of the time-sheets early on with his soft compound run as the German posted a 1:18.407 at the 45 minute mark of the session.

Bottas was more than a second down at that point but was running the yellow side-walled mediums and immediately trounced Vettel as he moved to the top with over half an hour remaining on the clock when he put on a pair of soft rubber.

The championship leader first set a 1:17.990, the initial lap under the sub 1:18 mark before improving once again on the same set of tyres after the cool down lap, which hit the 1:17.951 benchmark time.

No other driver got into the 1:17’s but the two Ferrari SF90’s of Vettel and Leclerc got within two tenths of Bottas.

Leclerc provisionally put himself ahead of team-mate Vettel with a 1:18.172 as the latter botched his first flyer during his second run.

Vettel caught traffic along with running wide, dipping his wheels into the gravel trap as he moved past a slow car on the outside exiting the turn 12 uphill right hander.

After his cool down lap, Vettel pushed once more and made himself the lead Ferrari in the session on a 1:18.066.

Hamilton could not reciprocate his team-mate in opening practice, which saw the reigning champion falling to the bottom of the time-sheets momentarily after failing to get a good lap on his first stint on the mediums.

Hamilton reported that his rears were “gone” after an average hot lap on his soft tyre run that left him 0.624 seconds adrift of Bottas.

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean was the surprise best of the rest after beating McLaren’s Carlos Sainz to fifth by just 0.212 seconds and team-mate Kevin Magnussen who was seventh.

Pierre Gasly was the leading Red Bull in the session taking eighth place, while team-mate Max Verstappen was down in 12th place due due an oil leak coming out of the engine with the Milton Keynes-squad still investigating the problem.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten in ninth and tenth respectively.

The other Renault of Daniel Ricciardo was only 0.061 seconds behind his tenth-placed team-mate in 11th.

The aforementioned Verstappen gesticulated to Bottas in a minor early tingle with the former catching the Silver Arrow whilst on a hot lap at the penultimate corner.

One major incident was for Racing Point’s 13th placed Lance Stroll who crashed with just over a minute left in the session as the Canadian suffered a wobble at the turn nine entry while clipping the grass and locked the front wheels as he corrected his RP19, which sent him straight on into the barriers nose first.

Stroll emerged from the incident unscathed with his car receiving major damage as opening practice ended under the red flag.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi was 14th and in-front of Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon who took 15th and McLaren’s Lando Norris who was 16th.

The other Racing Point of Sergio Perez was a low 17th ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who finished 18th as the two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of Robert Kubica and George Russell were brought up the rear.

Formula 1 Emirates Gran Premio De Espana 2019 Free Practice 1 Classification