First part of free practice
Cloudy. Dry. Air +25С, route +42…43С
After a run of five Grands Prix on street circuits, the teams arrived at the well-known stationary circuit in Barcelona with many new products, most of which they spent testing during the first practice session. Racers rode off with aerodynamic paint and local pressure gauges.
Pirelli gave the teams two sets of new Hard tires to test on Friday, which will be used from Silverstone onwards.
The configuration of the track has been updated this year, with the last chicane removed, a high-speed section appeared in its place – we also had to get used to that. The day before, many riders said that at the end of the weekend, the neck will hurt because of the high g-forces on this stretch. Interestingly, they complained not only to Mercedes and Ferrari, but also to Red Bull about the car’s build-up due to a bump in the last corner, which was in no way felt in the configuration with a chicane.
In Ferrari, only Sainz got new items and Leclerc left in the same car for the engineers to evaluate progress on long range circles. They stood side by side on the plate.
The session went smoothly. Racers left the track a bit, but no more. At the end of the session, Gasly caught Sargent’s car while overtaking, but both drivers kept moving.
Max Verstappen took the lead with a lap time of 1:14.606.
Results of the first session
Results in progress…
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
