Mercedes enjoys “best Friday so far”
Mercedes started at the front in Spain with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, who took turns at the top of the timesheets on the circuit in Barcelona on Friday.
Bottas led Max Verstappen in FP1 before Hamilton displaced the Finn by a little more than a tenth in FP2 and led a 1: 2 for Mercedes. In the meantime, Red Bull had a difficult afternoon with neither Verstappen nor Sergio Perez able to set a representative lap time in second practice.
Mercedes looked strong on Friday in the individual laps as well as in the long run and had the advantage over Red Bull. This prompted team boss Toto Wolff to describe the day as the reigning world champion’s best start to a weekend so far this season.
“It was good,” said Wolff Sky. “I think it was our best Friday so far, so pretty encouraging. We just discussed it on the pit wall so we have 24 hours to really screw it up! “
Both drivers were happy with the early balance and build-up of their respective W12s in Barcelona and unlike the Portuguese GP, the team is unwilling to share direction to keep Red Bull in check.
That gives Hamilton and Bottas a lot of confidence in qualifying. The seven-time world champion is aiming for a fifth win in a row at the Spanish GP.
If the past in Barcelona is an issue, then history is on Mercedes’ side this weekend. The German manufacturer has achieved six out of seven victories in the V6 hybrid era in Spain.
On the subject of matching items
Red Bull optimistic despite a sluggish start
The mood at Red Bull Camp was surprisingly optimistic after a tricky Friday that ended with Verstappen and Perez.
Red Bull arguably had the fastest car in the first three races of the season, but that didn’t seem to be the case in Barcelona, although there were some limitations that distorted the true competitive image.
Verstappen made a mistake in his qualifying simulation run on the soft tires at revised Turn 10. Unlike his teammate, Perez did his flying lap, but the Mexican fought for a good lap, finishing 0.748 seconds slower than Hamilton’s fastest time.
On the subject of matching items
Perez’s racing pace was closer to the stadium and Verstappen kept the time clear on the table, so Red Bull was genuinely encouraged that it will be right in the battle for the front row of the grid in qualifying.
Verstappen, who will celebrate his 100th GP for Red Bull on the track where he celebrated his first Grand Prix victory in 2016, was determined to take advantage of the day’s positive results.
“Overall, I think we had a pretty good day,” he said. “The car seems pretty competitive so I’m looking forward to tomorrow to try and improve a bit, but nothing too shocking today.”
Red Bull has one last hour on Saturday morning to iron out problems and remedy part of its current tempo deficit at Mercedes before the battle for pole begins.
A great day for Ferrari and Alpine
After Red Bull fell behind in FP2, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the alpine duo Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso ended the day as Mercedes’ closest challengers.
Leclerc rounded off an extremely positive Friday in Barcelona for Ferrari by landing just half a second behind pacemaker Bottas in FP1 and being within 0.165 seconds of Hamilton’s FP2 benchmark, while teammate Carlos Sainz joined him in the final top 10. Order came.
“I think if we can be right behind Mercedes and Red Bull, that’s the best we can hope for now,” said Leclerc of Ferrari’s qualifying prospects.
“If there are good surprises, more than that, it will be welcome, but I think the goal should be to be right behind them.”
Alpine also impressed when the French squad wanted to continue their strong Portuguese Grand Prix in the fourth round of the season in Spain.
After an upgrade gave the team a positive step forward after a difficult start to the season in Portugal, Ocon and Alonso managed to get within four-tenths of Hamilton’s headline time on Friday afternoon.
Alonso in particular will be determined to continue his promising pace until the end of the weekend as he looks to get a strong result in his first home race since 2018.
Small margins define the order
The final FP2 contract again underscored how tight the midfield is this year, as well as the profits the teams have made to fill the gap with current F1 pacemakers Mercedes and Red Bull.
Less than a second split the field from Hamilton in P1 to Aston Martin from Lance Stroll in 14th place, with the edges around the 4.675 km long venue with 16 corners looking tighter than ever.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda were spot on on Friday as well, while Sebastian Vettel hailed the Aston Martin upgrade as a “step forward” as he enjoyed his most productive day yet for the Silverstone-based team. End of FP2 just outside the top 10.
McLaren have also brought updates to Barcelona with a new floor and front wing, but so far the team has yet to show how quickly Lando Norris has finished third in the championship after three races.
The Brit finished twelfth, a tenth ahead of new teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who admitted that he is still trying to find his way around the MCL35M and build up speed.
Ricciardo acknowledged that small margins will show the difference between the third quarter and back out of the first quarter in Spain.
“It shows that F1 is not only close to all teams this year, but that it is also a track that everyone knows so well. So there are only small margins,” said the Australian.
“But we will have to find more tomorrow, because if we have a second free we might be back here. So sure to find a few tenths. “
The post Can Ferrari or Alpine surprise you? What we learned on Friday at the F1 Spanish GP first appeared on monter-une-startup.
