Oscar Piastri was quickest on the first day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. McLaren’s Australian was the only driver to get under the 1’13” barrier, his best lap being a 1’12”760, half a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s fastest Friday lap from last year. Piastri was also quickest in all three sectors. It was his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris who topped the time sheet in the first session with a lap in 1’13”718.

THE DAY ON TRACK:
Right from the first session, 18 of the 20 cars on track ran the C1, the only exceptions being Lance Stroll’s number 18 Aston Martin and the 43 Alpine in the hands of Franco Colapinto. The Mercedes pairing of George Russell and Franco Colapinto and the Williams duo of Carlos Sainz, and Victor Martins, the latter driving Alex Albon’s car in FP1, did something different, running a set of Medium and one of Hards, while the rest of the field alternated between Hard and Soft.

In FP2 Colapinto and Stroll also put the Hard to work, to complete the picture. Therefore all drivers will only have one set of C1 for the rest of the weekend. On this subject, it’s worth noting that, as from tomorrow morning, Williams and Mercedes will only have one set of Medium and one of Hard.

Simone Berra: Chief Engineer:
“The Spanish Grand Prix is always a very interesting event from a technical viewpoint, given the challenges it sets for drivers, cars and tyres. This year is no exception and as for our product, it also confirms what a demanding test it sets them, especially in these rather high temperatures.

“Today we saw the teams work with all three compounds and all drivers used at least one set of Hards, keeping back just one set for the race. The performance difference between the compounds seems to be in line with expectations, somewhere around nine tenths to a second between the Hard and Medium and six to seven tenths between the Medium and Soft. The data gathered from the long runs was very useful, especially from Mercedes who extended them more than usual on both on the Soft and Medium.

“On this very abrasive surface, managing thermal degradation on the rear axle will be one of the key factors on Sunday. In order to try and protect the rear tyres, the teams will have to pay particular attention to car balance, as there’s a risk of increasing the stress on the fronts, especially the left side. With this scenario, if one wants to extend the stint a lot, then tyre wear must be taken into account, always paying particular attention to the front left, which is put under significant stress.

The track has evolved significantly, to the tune of one second from the first to the second session and an increase in car performance was already clear to see today, with the fastest lap time being half a second quicker than in 2024.

“If we already look ahead to Sunday, its relatively easy to hypothesise that we will see a similar scenario to last year’s race, with the Medium and Soft as protagonists of a two-stop race."

FORMULA 2:
Englishman Arvid Lindblad took pole position for the Barcelona round. The Campos Racing driver stopped the clocks in 1’25”180, a time 245 thousandths quicker than Colombia’s Sebastian Montoya (PREMA Racing). Third was India’s Kush Maini (DAMS Lucas Oil) in a time of 1’25”330.

As was the case already last year, the compounds chosen for this weekend in Montmelò are the Hard and Soft, thus jumping one compound. The Spanish track is very hard on tyres, which are subjected to very high lateral loads because of the many high speed corners. On paper, the quickest strategy for the Feature Race involves starting on the Hard before switching to the Soft. Anyone doing the opposite will be looking to exploit the additional grip of the softer compound in the early stages to make up some places. In 2024, these two strategies were almost evenly split with ten drivers starting on the Hard and twelve on the Soft. Once the Hard tyre performance had peaked, the pit stops began for those on the softer compound. These drivers struggled towards the end of the stint with high wear on the front axle, compounded by traffic on track, which made them vulnerable to being overtaken. The Sprint was tackled on the Hard and drivers had to watch out for degradation, especially on the front axle, so as not to struggle in the closing stages.

FORMULA 3
Rafael Camara reacted in the best possible way after failing to score points in Monaco, by taking pole position. Trident’s Brazilian driver set a best time of 1’28”761, finishing ahead of Campos Racing’s Bulgarian driver Nikola Tsolov (1’28”977) and ART Grand Prix’s Dutchman Laurens van Hoepen (1’29”106).

The Hard is once again the tyre chosen for Barcelona, because of the significant lateral forces generated in this circuit’s many fast corners. It will therefore present a real challenge for the young drivers in this category when it comes to managing degradation, especially on the front axle, as was the case last year. Those who had worked the tyres hard in the early stages, then struggled towards the end. Another factor to keep in mind is the air temperature, expected to exceed 25 °C. This should help during the warm-up phase and those who do the best job of getting tyres up to temperature quickly, could have an advantage.