Barcelona FP1 report: Lando Norris leads for McLaren, Ferrari shows promising long-run pace. Lando Norris tops FP1 at the Spanish GP with a strong lap in Barcelona.

Lando Norris immediately set the fastest time in the first free practice session at Montmeló, suggesting that the MCL39s suffered no negative impact from the wing change. Verstappen finished second ahead of the Ferraris, which showed a good pace on the Soft tyres.

New wings, same McLaren. The Spanish Grand Prix weekend kicked off early this afternoon with the first free practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and Lando Norris immediately placed his MCL39 ahead of everyone.

A time of 1’13″718 allowed the British driver to end the first practice session on top, immediately putting significant gaps between himself and the rest of the field. While Norris delivered a strong lap right away, Oscar Piastri didn’t go beyond fifth place, more than half a second behind his teammate, also due to rear-end instability in his car during his fast lap attempt.

Norris made the biggest difference in the middle sector. Max Verstappen, second and 367 thousandths behind the McLaren driver, and the two Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lost most of their time to car number 4 in that part of the track.

Speaking of Max Verstappen, the session for the reigning four-time world champion was hampered by a rear-end issue on his RB21. There was visible tension inside the Dutchman’s garage, with Gianpiero Lambiase repeatedly reminding the mechanics how much time was left in the session. Max managed to get back on track in the final minutes, showing some interesting race pace over the five laps he completed.

Ferrari, although significantly behind on the single-lap pace, showed very promising performance in their race simulation with fuel onboard and Soft tyres. Their rhythm, at least in Free Practice 1, was the strongest.

Racing Bulls also started well again, with Liam Lawson in sixth and Isack Hadjar eighth. Between the two VCARB02s was an excellent Oliver Bearman in the leading Haas. Esteban Ocon did not run this morning as the team fielded Ryo Hirakawa in his place.

Yuki Tsunoda was ninth in the second RB21, while Pierre Gasly completed the Top 10 in the first Alpine A525. Both Mercedes cars were outside the Top 10, but George Russell (11th) and Andrea Kimi Antonelli (18th) only ran on Hard and Medium tyres. However, their pace was not particularly strong, suffering a noticeable drop-off after about ten laps on the same compounds.