Five drivers from five different teams in the top five places come the end of free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. So far this season, the field seems very evenly matched, or at least it has been since the Australian Grand Prix and that’s been the case today, the longest day of the year. From the quickest time of 1’13”264 set by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes to fifth placed Max Verstappen in the Red Bull (1’13”504) the gap is just 240 thousandths and in between these two we have Carlos Sainz (1’13”286) in the Ferrari, Lando Norris in the McLaren (1’13”319) and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly (1’13”443).

THE DAY ON TRACK:
The two hours of free practice went off very smoothly, with just one brief interruption in FP1 because of a piece of front wing left on the track. The teams all worked on adapting their cars to the track characteristics and on tyre performance, using various fuel loads and different ways of managing the tyres, especially over long runs. The Hard compound was used a lot in the first session, especially at the beginning. By the end of the 60 minutes, only six drivers (Piastri, Sargeant, Albon, Zhou, Magnussen and Bearman) had not used the C1. In the second hour however, the Soft came to the fore, not only when it came to performance runs, but also over longer stints, which is what the teams worked on towards the end of the session. Even the longest run of the day – 19 laps courtesy of Yuki Tsunoda in the Racing Bulls – was done on the C3.

Simone Berra: Chief Engineer:
“Barcelona always provides a stern test for all the parts that go to make up a Formula 1 car and the tyres are no exception to that rule! That was the case today, in high temperatures, with the track getting close to the 50 °C mark, which added further stress to the tyres that are already subjected to some of the highest lateral forces of the whole season. Honestly, we have not seen anything particularly surprising in terms of the performance of the three dry weather compounds, even if obviously we have not yet had a chance to study today’s data in detail. The performance difference over a flying lap seems to match the predictions – six to seven tenths between Hard and Medium and just over a second between Medium and Soft – and the C3 appears to be a possible option for the race, especially in terms of exploiting its performance advantage off the start line and over the opening laps, as indeed we saw last year."

FORMULA 2
Formula 2 qualifying was very closely contested, with the first three covered by just six thousandths of a second! Pole position went to Estonia’s Paul Aron (Hitech Pulse-Eight) in a time of 1’24”766. Behind him came the American DAMS driver Jak Crawford (1’24”768) and MP Motorsport’s Argentine driver Franco Colapinto (1’24”772). The two compounds chosen for the Barcelona round are the Pirelli P Zero White hard and the P Zero Red soft. All the drivers know this track very well, as it’s used for testing and it presents one of the sternest tests of the season for the tyres, especially because of the high lateral forces they have to contend with. Compared to last year, air and track temperatures could be higher, as this year, the race is three weeks later on the calendar. That could be an advantage during the tyre warm-up phase, especially at the start, but it can also be a disadvantage, inducing thermal degradation.

FORMULA 3
Pole position for the one hundredth round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship went to Christian Mansell. ART Grand Prix’s Australian driver set the quickest time of 1’28”463, 36 thousandths quicker than Englishman Arvid Lindblad (Prema Racing), while Mansell’s team-mate, Bulgaria’s Nikola Tsolov was third, 56 thousandths off the pole time. The P Zero White hard is the tyre chosen for the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, as lateral forces at the Spanish track are among the highest of the season, because of its long high-speed corners. As was the case in 2023, managing the front axle is the main factor when it comes to maintaining performance from the compound. The change of layout to the final sector, with the removal of the chicane introduced back in 2007, further increases front tyre wear, thus exacerbating performance drop off. The higher temperatures that can be expected over the course of the weekend because of the later date on the calendar, will help with tyre warm-up, especially at the start: whoever makes the most of this aspect could make up a few places off the line.