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Motorsport

Filip Cleeren

F1 Barcelona GP: George Russell tops Barcelona first practice

George Russell Barcelona Charles Leclerc Oscar Piastri Ferrari McLaren

Mercedes F1 driver George Russell has topped first free practice at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, heading McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc at Montmelo.

On a hot Friday afternoon, Russell set a best time of 1m16.363s to head Piastri by two tenths. In a heavily upgraded Ferrari SF-26, which includes a new front wing and floor, Leclerc was 0.520s behind in third, followed by Red Bull's Max Verstappen and McLaren FP1 driver Leonardo Fornaroli.

A third of the way through the one-hour session, Russell upped the ante with a 1m17.353s lap on Pirelli's medium-tyres, which was soon bested by Verstappen's 1m17.047s, on softs.

Around the halfway mark, Russell took a significant bite out of his time to set a 1m16.363s lap, a benchmark which would remain untouched for the remainder of the session.

Piastri was a strong second on mediums, just two tenths back and ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, who initially complained about the unpredictable mix of understeer and oversteer in his Red Bull RB22.

Standing in for world champion Lando Norris, Fornaroli was the first of a sizeable rookie crop in Barcelona, which is a safe proving ground for teams to satisfy one of their four rookie outing requirements.

Paul Aron was in action for Audi (Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Paul Aron took sixth for Audi in Nico Hulkenberg's car, ahead of Liam Lawson and Dino Beganovic, who took the reins of Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari. Arvid Lindblad and Franco Colapinto rounded out the top 10.

Elsewhere, Ayumu Iwasa was in Isack hadjar's Red Bull in 14th, while 15th-placed Frederik Vesti deputised for championship leader Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes.

F2 driver and former IndyCar ace Colton Herta received his first FP1 outing with Cadillac as he prepares for a possible F1 future, with the Californian 21st and last of the drivers establishing a laptime.

That's because Williams reserve Luke Browning was not able to run due to suspected electrical issues on Alex Albon's FW48. The Super Formula driver is set for another outing in two weeks at the Austrian Grand Prix.