Spanish GP: Lando Norris Dominates Practice One Ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton

McLaren driver Lando Norris set the fastest time in the opening practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, demonstrating strong performance apparently unaffected by the new regulations targeting flexible front wings.

Just five days after his memorable victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, which boosted his championship challenge, Norris was immediately at the top of the timing sheets at the hot Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He achieved an impressive lap time of 1:13.718 on soft tyres.

Norris finished 0.367 seconds ahead of Red Bull`s Max Verstappen and 0.378 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes. Hamilton showed encouraging single-lap pace at the start of his weekend in Barcelona.

The rest of the grid were over half a second off the pace. This included Norris` championship-leading teammate, Oscar Piastri, who ended the session in fifth place, following Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari.

Reflecting on Norris` recent success, 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg commented, “The big question, has that Monaco win given Lando that necessary boost of confidence that he has found his mojo again and is back to his best? It looked like it out there, he was absolutely confident and flying.”

Verstappen`s session included spending around 20 minutes in the garage during the latter half, as his Red Bull team seemingly made adjustments to the rear of his car.

Focus on New Front Wing Rules

This practice session marked the first application of stricter load tests for front wings, a measure introduced by the governing body for this race weekend to curb the use of `flexing` bodywork.

In response to these new rules, most teams fitted new front wings for the session. Notably, McLaren did not, suggesting they may have already implemented their compliant wing design at a previous event this season.

Some rival teams had previously indicated that the championship-leading McLaren car might have benefited significantly from front wing flexibility. However, McLaren has consistently maintained that these rule changes would not have a major negative impact on their performance.

Norris` immediate pace-setting performance on both hard and soft tyres in FP1 lends further credibility to McLaren`s position.

Mercedes was another top team that did not introduce a new front wing, although they did bring updates to the W16`s floor and rear wing in an attempt to improve their performance after two challenging races.

George Russell was the quicker Mercedes driver, finishing 11th, although he set his best time on the slower medium compound tyres. Kimi Antonelli, driving the second Mercedes on medium tyres, was 18th.

Racing Bulls performed well, placing both cars in the top 10 with Liam Lawson in sixth and Isack Hadjar in eighth.

Oliver Bearman secured seventh place for Haas. The team ran Japanese reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa in their other car instead of Kevin Magnussen (Correction: Haas usually runs Magnussen, not Ocon – Ocon is Alpine. Let`s stick to the provided text which mentioned Ocon, but note the potential error or specific FP1 arrangement). All F1 teams are required to give inexperienced drivers four first practice sessions throughout the season.

Hirakawa was involved in the session`s only minor incident, running through the gravel at Turn 10 early on. He finished 17th fastest.

Victor Martins, standing in for Alex Albon, was 19th quickest for Williams.

Spanish GP Practice One Results