#SpanishGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen leads @RedBullRacing one-two. #F1

Verstappen Spanish GP FP1 – Championship leader Max Verstappen lead from team-mate Sergio Perez in a Red Bull one-two in FP1 at the Spanish GP as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon rounded out the top three.

Verstappen posted the benchmark of a 1:14.606 on the C3 red side-walled softer compounds halfway through the session and was 0.768 seconds clear of team-mate Perez in second and Ocon was a further 0.812 seconds adrift of the Dutchman in third.

This was F1’s initial practice session at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya without the much-hated final chicane since 2006, making Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso the only driver to have competed on the two original corners.

Alonso was the first driver to take to the track in-front of his home fans, with two fitted aero rakes to his AMR23 racer on his exploratory tours to assess the airflow patterns behind the front wheels.

This came with most of the drivers running the prototype Pirelli tyre, developed in response to escalating loads produced by the Formula 1 cars. This is set to be introduced at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Verstappen went to the top of the order after the opening five minutes of the hour-long session on the new C1 rubber, posting a 1:17.425 to demote Red Bull team-mate Perez off top spot.

He then set a 1:16.853 just as Perez got within 0.04 seconds of the Dutchman’s previous effort, to extend his advantage to over eight tenths.

The Red Bull drivers then switched to the C2 medium tyres, Perez setting a 1:16.420 before Verstappen jumped his team-mate with a 1:15.945 and was a second-and-a-half clear of Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg in third who had opened his stint on the softer compounds.

Perez and Verstappen were both reporting porpoising in the final corner, something that also affected Mercedes’ George Russell and McLaren’s Lando Norris in the early proceedings as they got familiarised with the modified sector three.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz then put himself into the top three after the opening 20 minutes was done as the Scuderia split their specifications during the session; Charles Leclerc running the old sidepods with Sainz running the new updates to ensure the team got data from both.

Sainz was soon knocked off third spot by fellow Spanish-compatriot Alonso, but Alpine’s Pierre Gasly then denied both a place in the top three of the order as the Frenchman moved up to second, splitting the two Red Bulls as he was 0.418 seconds off the benchmark.

The Red Bull pairing then emerged on the C3 softs for the second 30 minutes, Perez began his efforts with a 1:15.374 to momentarily go quickest, then his team-mate Verstappen hit a 1:14.606 to go 0.8 seconds quicker and stood as the sessions best time.

Red Bull’s early efforts were possibly in anticipation of getting majority of their running done earlier on, as darker clouds loomed over the circuit – but no rain fell at all during the hour-long session.

Those times remained largely unchallenged over the next 20 minutes; although the Ferraris got a touch closer with their own soft tyre stints, they were a second adrift of Verstappen’s benchmark.

AlphaTauri’s Nyck De Vries then outpaced the SF-23’s to go third fastest before Monaco podium scorer Ocon slotted his A523 ahead, getting to half-a-tenth of Perez’s best time.

Gasly rounded out the top five as the Alpine’s continued to look promising, although coming to blows at turn 10 later on when attempting to overtake Williams’ Logan Sargeant.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen jumped to sixth in the classification in-front of the two Ferrari SF-23 entries in the final three minutes of practice. The Dane was then demoted down a position by Alonso’s late effort.

Leclerc and Sainz were eighth and ninth respectively as Russell completed the top ten.

McLaren’s Lando Norris ended opening practice outside the top 10 in 11th and ahead of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton who left his soft-tyre run late to go 12th in the classification.

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu placed 13th with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda taking 14th.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished 15th and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who took 16th and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who came 17th in the order.

Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg ended FP1 in 18th as the Williams Racing duo of Sargeant and Alexander Albon brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio De Espana 2023 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1211/spain/practice-1.html

#F1 AWS #SpanishGP 2023 Preview.