Hello F1 fanatics, it’s that time of the week again. Here’s the news of what is happening so far at the Spanish Grand Prix’s Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya.

 

 

Hamilton quickest in FP2

 

Lewis Hamilton lead the Red Bulls in the afternoon Free Practice Two session at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, Spain.

 

The Briton set the benchmark of a 1:18.259 on the yellow-branded soft rubber.

 

Hamilton was on course to improve on his qualifying simulation run whilst using the more faster rubber for the weekend, the red-marked supersofts, but went too aggressive on the throttle at the turn seven left hander and took a trip into the gravel.

 

Hamilton did not have another shot on that set of tyres and returned to the pits, but with the rest of the field also struggling to make improvements after swapping to supersofts, the Briton’s earlier time set was enough for P1.

 

Daniel Ricciardo was second quickest in his Red Bull Racing RB14, 0.133 seconds off of Hamilton, also setting his time on the soft compounds.

 

Ricciardo’s Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen made an improvement on his qualifying simulation run, taking third place with a 1:18.533.

 

Verstappen took a spin at turn two in the final stages of the 90 minute session while running on the softs.

 

Behind the Dutchman, Vettel improved on his supersoft stint, just half a tenth off Verstappen, with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas behind the duo in fifth place having used the white-branded mediums earlier then switching to the supersofts to set his best effort.

 

Kimi Raikkonen ended the day in sixth place, the slowest of the top three teams, with the Finn taking a tour into the gravel trap at turn four before returning to the garage with a power-unit problem.

 

The Finn also did not improve on his supersoft stint, with his best time coming earlier in session setting a 1:18.829 on the soft tyres.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean bounced back from a horrendous start to Free Practice Two to emerge as best of the rest after going seventh quickest with a 1:19.579 and just under the hour mark in the session.

 

The Frenchman spun into the turn seven gravel trap on his fourth lap but after his Ferrari-powered VF-18 was recovered and returned to the pits, he went out against post his quick effort.

 

This put his Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen down to eighth place with the Dane ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who was ninth fastest.

 

Force India’s Sergio Perez completed the top 10, less than a tenth faster than team-mate Esteban Ocon who was 11th.

 

Perez’s session came to an early end as the Mexican stopped on track with 13 minutes remaining with a loose front-left tyre after a pit-stop.

 

Perez briefly restarted his VJM11 racer and attempted to make it back to pit-lane after being urged to by the team, but decided to stop in-case the wheel came off completely.

 

The other Renault-powered McLaren MCL33 of Fernando Alonso was 12th fastest ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who took 13th and Toro Rosso’s 14th placed Pierre Gasly with the latter changing his floor during the session.

 

Sauber F1 Team duo Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc were 15th and 16th respectively and in-front of Renault’s 17th placed Carlos Sainz.

 

Sainz was unhappy with the aerodynamic and mechanical balance of his RS18, which featured a modified front wing and rear suspension this weekend.

 

The other Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley was 18th and ahead of the Williams duo Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin who ended the day at the rear.

 

Miami Grand Prix proposal approved

 

 

A Formula 1 Grand Prix on the streets of Miami was one step closer to reality after being approved by an unanimous vote from the City of Miami commissioners for a second US race to take part in the South Florida city beginning next year.

 

The 10 year reported deal, would give the United States a second Formula 1 GP beginning in 2019 alongside the United States Grand Prix which is currently held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

 

The City of Miami Commission stated: “A resolution of the Miami City Commission supporting the efforts to bring the Formula 1 racing circuit to the city of Miami for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix from 2019 to 2028, and to direct the city manager to formalize the necessary contractual agreement between the City of Miami and the Formula 1 World Championship Limited.”

 

The race is on course to be scheduled in October 2019 but the Grand Prix it will be replacing on the calendar remains unclear.

 

Stroll: “Williams struggling everywhere”

 

 

Williams driver Lance Stroll echoed reserve driver Robert Kubica’s statements that the FW41 racer was a handful to drive.

 

“It was very difficult to understand the balance as it’s definitely not the balance a racing driver wants to feel,” explained Stroll.

 

“This afternoon we tried to sort out a few things and the car improved a little bit, but still there is so much to understand and figure out. There is a lot of work to be done tonight and we have got to understand what to do so we can be better.”

 

Team-mate Sergey Sirotkin hopped back into his car in FP2 following Kubica’s run in the opening session, meaning the Russian had just 90 minutes to get a feel of his FW41 racer.

 

“The car is difficult to drive, and mentally it makes you concentrate 200% on everything because it’s so tricky,” Sirotkin said.

 

“You saw this morning how difficult it was with cars going off. It takes a lot of energy from you just to drive. We didn’t expect it to be easy and I’m waiting for the chance to test most of the new bits on our car,”

 

“Yes, that was a bad session, but we have a long-term plan with a lot of effort from all of us, so I don’t want one bad session or event to affect it. Everyone is working flat out and it will take time, but we will get there.” Sirotkin concluded.

 

Williams are the only team alongside Sauber to have not made a Q3 appearance in 2018, with the way the weekend is turning out, it’s highly likely that the streak will continue.

 

Sauber: ” A good day outing”

 

 

It ended a positive day for the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya with drivers Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson using the first day of practice to focus on new aerodynamic part testing and setup work.

 

Both drivers were overall satisfied with their cars performance with tyre management being the main challenge for qualifying coming up as the Hinwil-based outfit has shown good potential for Sunday’s race.

 

“It was a good day overall,” explained Leclerc who was 12th quickest in the morning session and 16th in FP2. “We completed different tests, and set up the car to suit the the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya layout,”

 

“Our performance is better than expected for this type of track, which is a good sign. It shows us that we have made good progress since the winter tests at beginning of season. We have to continue to work hard now and continue making improvements throughout the weekend. I look forward to tomorrow’s sessions.”

 

Ericsson was 14th quickest in practice and ended the day 15th in FP2 posting a time of a 1:20.501.

 

“It was a good day overall,” said Ericsson. “We completed different tests, and set up the car to suit the the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya layout.”

 

“Our performance is better than expected for this type of track, which is a good sign. It shows us that we have made good progress since the winter tests at beginning of season. We have to continue to work hard now and continue making improvements throughout the weekend. I look forward to tomorrow’s sessions.”

 

Vettel: “Everything we put on the car works.”

 

 

Current World Constructors Championship leaders Ferrari brought a load of updates for the Spanish Grand Prix, the most noticeable was the installation of the rear view mirrors on the halo head-protection device and after the days running, Sebastian Vettel said ” Everything we put on the car worked.”

 

Vettel ended the afternoon fourth quickest, 0.326 seconds off Lewis Hamilton’s benchmark while Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was sixth but the Finn’s session ended early due to an engine problem.

 

Alongside the new rear-view mirrors and the winglets to improve the SF71H’s aerodynamic performance, Ferrari also revised the front and rear wings as well as other bodywork upgrades and after running them in the practice sessions, Vettel was confident.

 

“Everything we put on the car seems to work and that’s important,” explained Vettel. “I think the biggest change that has been made is on the tires, which seem to be quite different. I don’t think they are better than before,”

 

“As for the changes you saw with the rearview mirrors, it is no big deal. Before, it was quite difficult for us to look at the cars behind. Now they are in a better position and I can see a little bit better below the rear wing.”

 

Despite being a slippery and windy day of running, Vettel believes they should be a lot stronger come FP3 and Qualifying.

 

“If you trust your car, there is no reason to try to push over the limit at this stage. Let’s hope we have the same trust as in Baku where I could get everything out of the car when I had to. Today it was quite slippery and gusty and it was a mixed day. We can still work on the car and I think we should be stronger tomorrow”. Vettel concluded.

 

 Red Bull optimistic over upgrades

 

 

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo said that the Milton-Keynes outfit’s upgrades were crazy after running them during Friday’s practice sessions at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

 

Both the Australian and team-mate Max Verstappen were satisfied with the promising signs.

 

Red Bull’s season has been up and down so far, producing a car that is able to mix it at the front with rivals Ferrari and Mercedes and taking a sensational victory with Ricciardo in China but have had two double DNF’s in Azerbaijan and Baku and are 59 points off the championship leaders Ferrari in the Constructors Championship.

 

In it’s attempt to fight back, Red Bull brought the biggest updates to Barcelona, featuring revised bargeboards, floor and sidepods.

 

Ricciardo crashed in the opening practice session but recovered nicely in FP2 to end the day 0.133 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark time with Verstappen a tenth further back in third.

 

Both Red Bull drivers were looking promising on their long runs.

 

“It was a day of two halves,” explained Ricciardo. “The car felt pretty different this afternoon and I think that showed. The mistake in to Turn 4 this morning was a costly one and I missed the final hour of the session because of it.”

 

Ricciardo spoke of the tricky conditions, which was one of the obstacles facing the drivers this weekend, that caught him and others out.

 

“Tail winds are a big thing in F1 and in any corners with a tail wind you lose a lot of rear grip. Turn 4 is a bad corner to have a tail wind and it caught me and a few others out. Of course you don’t want to crash but if I’m trying to find a silver lining, then FP1 is probably the best time to do it. FP2 is the one where you do your Race and Qualifying simulations,”

 

“We got our heads down and put the laps in this afternoon, which was important with the updates to the car, there are quite a few aerodynamicists here today so we needed the laps to give them as much feedback as possible.” Ricciardo said

 

The main challenge for the weekend was getting the tyres to work, mostly on the red-walled supersoft rubber.

 

“On the soft tyre we were quite fast, we didn’t really get the supersoft working which I don’t think many people did and it looks like it will be a tricky tyre this weekend. At the end with high fuel I think we were ok but I’m sure we can still be better. We have found some pace, there is still a bit more to find, but overall a pretty good end to a Friday.” Ricciardo concluded.

 

Verstappen was satisfied with how his RB14 racer handed too. “You always want to improve but I think the car has been handling pretty well today,” Verstappen said. “We didn’t experience too many issues and it looked competitive in the long runs. P2 and P3 looks good for us on paper but it is only Friday so we’ll keep pushing tonight to make some steps forward for tomorrow,”

 

“The updates we brought here seem to be working so we will have to wait and see how much of an impact they have on Qualifying. The supersoft tyre doesn’t seem to be particularly quick and is hard to get working, that might change tomorrow but the soft seemed a better compound today,”

 

Verstappen was also among some of the drivers explaining how tricky the new surface felt, as well as how strong the RB14 was in the final sector.

 

“The new surface created a few moments for a lot of drivers, myself included. A few corners are now flat out which means we lose a bit more time as it effectively makes the straights longer, but we looked competitive in the last sector so we can make up for it a bit there and play to our strengths,”

 

On the team’s short and long stints for the race, Verstappen said it was very promising.

 

“Short runs were decent and long runs looked good so come Sunday I feel we can perform well and have good pace. It is tricky to overtake here so hopefully we can put ourselves in a good position from Qualifying tomorrow.” Verstappen said.

 

Force India: “A good day in tricky conditions”

 

 

It was a productive day for the Silverstone-based squad, with the team testing a new floor, bargeboards and front wing at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain as well as gathering data about the tyre compounds available for the weekend.

 

Esteban Ocon was happy with the days running “It was a solid day and a big effort by the team to try so many different things on the car in the first session,” said Ocon. “We managed to complete most of the big jobs and now we need to do more homework to understand everything.”

 

Ocon was 16th quickest in the opening session setting a 1:21.444 before improving to 11th best in FP2 posting a 1:20.024 but the Frenchman said there is a lot more to work on.

 

“I think there is still a lot more to come because we are not exactly where we want to be with the car. Track conditions were not easy for anybody because it was very windy and difficult to put together a clean lap and stay on the track.” Ocon concluded.

 

On the other side of the garage, Sergio Perez was content with the progress made despite the windy conditions.

 

“We have some good information and we have learned about the new parts on the car; we have made a step forward.” explained the Mexican.” The balance is still not ideal so there is the potential to find more performance tomorrow. The track was very green this morning, but it improved this afternoon even though it was very windy.”

 

Perez took 13th place in Free Practice One before ending the day 10th quickest in the afternoon posting a 1:19.962 with 28 laps completed but the Mexican ended his day 13 minutes early after a loose front left wheel issue from a pit-stop.