F1 Spanish GP: George Russell tops FP1 as Lewis…

Mercedes’ George Russell was fastest in the first-ever Formula 1 session at the brand-new Madring track – Free Practice 1 for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Twenty out of 22 cars took to the brand-new track within the first 100 seconds of the session, with Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto emerging some time later.

The very first flying laps were somewhat tentative with most drivers in the 1m42s-1m45s bracket, but Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris lapped in 1m39s straight away.

Lap times kept tumbling in the opening part of the session, with Hamilton down to a 1m36.066s within just eight minutes. Consistently faster than anyone, the Ferrari driver successively improved the benchmark to 1m35.563s and 1m34.803s. Team-mate Charles Leclerc did go 0.120s quicker, but Hamilton narrowly snatched the top spot back in 1m34.620s.

After all drivers but Gabriel Bortoleto (on hards) spent the first half of the session on medium tyres, softs were brought into action.

However, Kimi Antonelli’s and Russell’s opening efforts – two each – on that compound fell 0.063s and 0.109s short of Hamilton’s medium-tyre reference.

Lewis Hamilton held up several drivers (Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images)

Russell’s third attempt, a 1m34.145s was good enough to go fastest, and he subsequently upgraded it to a 1m34.077s. Antonelli, in 1m34.363s, made it a Mercedes 1-2.

Meanwhile, both Leclerc and Hamilton went wide at Turn 17. The Monegasque only narrowly improved on his personal best, while his team-mate ended up as the only driver not to set his quickest lap on soft rubber – alongside Yuki Tsunoda, who was ruled out of the session with 25 minutes remaining by a power steering issue on his Racing Bulls.

Verstappen was fifth ahead of Norris, Arvid Lindblad – who cleared the remainder of the midfield group – and Oscar Piastri.

Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson, Bortoleto, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Colapinto followed in a 1m35.5s-1m35.9s bracket.

Home hero Fernando Alonso was an encouraging 15th – by Aston Martin’s current standards – ahead of one Haas, both Williams, both Cadillacs and team-mate Lance Stroll.

The main incident of the session occurred when Lindblad, on a flying lap, came across the slow Mercedes and Ferrari of Antonelli and Hamilton in La Monumental.

Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls (Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images)

“These same two guys, man!” the rookie ranted over team radio. “Like, I don’t know what they’re doing, they’re just stupid, right in the fast corner! It’s actually very dangerous, it’s been twice now.”

Hamilton was then involved in further impeding incidents at team-mate Leclerc’s and Hulkenberg’s expense. Carlos Sainz also complained about the way the seven-time world champion let him by in La Monumental.