The Mercedes driver traded times with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel before establishing himself at the head of the order with two laps good enough to end the session quickest. Bottas was left out of the car in the final half hour, though, as Mercedes stripped down his W10 to understand what was initially described as a hydraulic problem. Mercedes determined an oil leak had caused a precautionary engine shutdown, which it is investigating the cause of. The second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton ended FP1 fourth fastest, half a second adrift after complaining of "terrible" tyre preparation. Vettel set the early pace on soft tyres and topped the times at the midway stage of the session on a 1m18.407s. Bottas was more than a second slower at this point but had only run the medium tyres, and immediately usurped Vettel once he bolted on softs with just over half an hour of the session left. He initially set a 1m17.990s, the first sub-1m18s lap of the day, and then improved on the same set of tyres after a cool-down lap to end up on a 1m17.951s. No other driver set a 1m17s lap, although both Ferraris finished within two tenths of Bottas. Leclerc initially moved himself ahead of Vettel thanks to a 1m18.172s lap and his teammate botching his first flier during the second set of runs. Vettel caught traffic in the final sector and ran wide, dipping his left wheels into the gravel, as he cleared a slower car on the outside exiting the long uphill Turn 12 right-hander. However, after a cool-down lap, Vettel was able to push again and re-established himself as the lead Ferrari on a 1m18.066s. Hamilton's session was understated, and included him falling to the foot of the times briefly after failing to set a competitive effort on medium tyres in the first half of FP1. He bemoaned his rear tyres being "done" after a mediocre flying lap on softs that left him 0.6s slower than Bottas. The Red Bulls did not feature in their usual position between Mercedes, Ferrari and the rest of the field after avoiding using soft tyres. Pierre Gasly was the lead Red Bull representative in eighth, 1.3s off the pace, while Max Verstappen was only 12th and 0.6s slower. Like Bottas, Verstappen ended his session early as Red Bull assessed an unknown problem on his RB15. Red Bull's tyre strategy opened the door for Romain Grosjean to end FP1 fifth fastest as Haas seeks to respond to its poor start to the season at a more favourable circuit. Grosjean beat the McLaren of Carlos Sainz to best-of-the-rest honours in first practice by 0.2s. Kevin Magnussen was 0.025s slower than Sainz in the second Haas, while behind Gasly the top 10 was completed by Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso and Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg. Beyond a minor early run-in between Bottas and Verstappen, who caught the Mercedes while on a flying lap and gesticulated at the points leader, the session was almost completed without major incident. That was until Lance Stroll crashed his Racing Point with just over a minute left to run. Stroll had a wobble on the entry to Turn 9 and locked up a front wheel as he corrected it, which sent him straight on and into the barriers nose first. He emerged unharmed, although the front of his car picked up a significant damage, and the session ended under red flags.<doc-sep>Barcelona FP2: Bottas edges Hamilton as Ferrari fade Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas dominated day one of free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, topping the timesheets in FP2 as he did earlier in the day at the end of FP1. Bottas was a mere five-hundredth of a second faster than his teammate Lewis Hamilton as the Silver Arrows set a first-day marker which left their rivals trailing by three-tenths of a second. This time last year Bottas also topped the timing screens at the end of the first day, his time almost a full second down on his effort today, proof of how the F1 new rules have made this generation car faster than their 2018 predecessor. Charles Leclerc was the faster of the Ferrari duo, however his best effort was 0.301 of a second down on the top time of the day, with Sebastian Vettel a further 0.088 of a second down on his teammate. After a troubled FP1, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was back at the sharp end, fifth fastest albeit a quarter of second down on the benchmark pace, with teammate Pierre Gasly a couple of tenths down on the sister car in seventh. After rolling out their latest major update, Haas seem to have found the sweetspot with the latest spec chassis which Romain Grosjean used to good effect to split the Red Bulls on the timesheets, and was only eight tenths down on the fastest time of the day. Teammate Kevin Magnussen, who ran the earlier spec car in FP1, was a couple of tenths shy of Grosjean in eighth suggesting that the American team are onto something special in their quest for Best of the Rest. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was ninth quickest, fastest of the four Renault powered cars and four tenths up on his rookie teammate Lando Norris whose best shot was good for 16th. Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top ten in the Toro Rosso making it three Honda-powered cars in the top ten. Ominously down the order were both Renault drivers, the team are either keeping their powder dry for Saturday or are in serious trouble with their latest package. Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo ended the day 14th and 15th respectively – 1.5 seconds down on where they wish they were. Also underperforming were Racing Point. Lance Stroll recovered from his late FP1 crash to finish the day 13th and 1.5 seconds off top spot, while Sergio Perez struggled all day and his best was only good for 18th. For Williams, as expected, the crisis continues as their cars were again hopeless, with rookie George Russell three seconds off the top time, and Robert Kubica six tenths off that and stone last.<doc-sep>Daniel Ricciardo had an encouraged start to his Spanish Grand Prix weekend after spending much of first practice running as high as third place, before dropping back down the field. The Australian has taken a new power unit this weekend after managing to only finish one race from four so far this season. And he saw the immediate benefit from it in a move that he said would make the car more reliable over the whole race weekend and allow Renault to perform with more power during qualifying sessions, something the team have struggled with so far this season. This weekend is set to be the last Spanish Grand Prix with Barcelona’s contract set to expire. Source: Getty Images He ultimately ended up finishing with the 11th quickest lap, just behind his Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Ricciardo is hoping for a strong performance this weekend given his three-place grid penalty for his misdemeanour in Azerbaijan where he ruled both himself and Daniil Kvyat out of the race. Elsewhere on the track, championship leader Valtteri Bottas topped the timesheets with a quickest lap of 1:17.951, ahead of the two Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc with Lewis Hamilton in P4. It was not all good news for him, however, as Mercedes were forced to cut his session short following an oil leak that caused concern on his side of the garage. He was not the only one to suffer an oil leak as Max Verstappen also had his run cut short in Barcelona. Valtteri Bottas topped Practice 1 despite suffering an oil leak. Source: AFP He could only manage the 12th-quickest time as a result, just behind his former teammate Ricciardo, as a red flag ended the session early after Lance Stroll hit the grass and went off into the wall via the gravel with just minutes remaining. That left the Haas car of Romain Grosjean in P5 after also benefitting from the upgrades made by his team.<doc-sep>Valtteri Bottas led the way for Mercedes in opening practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday despite being sidelined later in the session by an oil leak. Formula 1 drivers’ championship leader Bottas laid down a benchmark of 1m17.951s on the Soft compound tyre for his rivals to try and beat, with the Finn ultimately ending the session fastest. However, Bottas did not appear through the final 20 minutes of the session after an hydraulic problem emerged on his Mercedes W10 car, forcing the team to investigate the issue. Mercedes later confirmed that Bottas had suffered an oil leak which caused a precautionary engine shutdown. Bottas put in two laps good enough to finish fastest as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel could only finish one-tenth of a second behind in second place, narrowly ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton took fourth for Mercedes, six-tenths of a second off his teammate’s best effort. Mercedes wasn’t the only team to suffer a setback in FP1 as Red Bull was forced to work on Max Verstappen’s car – also due to an oil leak – which restricted the Dutchman to just 14 laps. There was worse news for Racing Point as Lance Stroll crashed out at Turn 9 with just one minute remaining in the session, triggering a red flag. The Canadian driver went straight on at the high-speed right-hander, with his car careering into the wall. Stroll quickly emerged from his car unharmed, although the team will be left with some repairs to complete ahead of FP2 later today. Haas enjoyed a solid opening practice in Barcelona as Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished fifth and seventh respectively, split by McLaren’s Carlos Sainz. Pierre Gasly wound up eighth for Red Bull ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, while Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10. Second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix begins at 3pm local time (2pm BST).<doc-sep>
Barcelona FP1: Bottas ahead with Ferrari in the hunt Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas topped the timing screens at the end of the first free practice of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, edging both Ferrari’s in the 90-minutes session which ended when Lance Stroll crashed his Racing Point in Turn 9. It was also a morning in which Honda power did not ‘show up’ and their star driver Max Verstappen spent half the time in the Red Bull pit garage with issues. Bottas set a best lap time of 1:17.951 which was good enough for the top time of the morning session, a tenth faster than the next best and six tenths up on his teammate Lewis Hamilton in fourth. Ferrari were the meat in the Silver Arrows sandwich with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc ending second and third respectively. The gap between them about a tenth of a second. The Italian team have a fast-tracked an update on their power unit for this weekend but reports indicate that they did not run the new package in FP1. Romain Grosjean made good use of a “nearly all new car” to clock the fifth best time, a tad under a second shy of the top time suggesting impressive progress by Haas with their second spec car. In the sister car, Kevin Magnussen ran the older-spec chassis as a deliberate back-to-back test. He ended the session in seventh albeit three tenths down on his teammate. The American team is sure to bolt the new bits onto the Dane’s car for the afternoon session. Local hero Carlos Sainz was sixth in the McLaren, fastest of the Renault quartet but 1.2 seconds down on the benchmark pace, but nine-tenths up on teammate Lando Norris down in 16th. Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly was fastest of the Honda-powered posse but a massive 1.3 seconds off Bottas’ effort. Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso was ninth, under a tenth of a second down on the Frenchman. Alex Albon was 15th, seven tenths down on his teammate. Coupled to Verstappen’s limited running, this is not the kind of start to the weekend that the energy drinks organisation was hoping for, unless Honda have a plan of course. Underachieving again were the Renault pair with Nico Hulkenberg in tenth and Daniel Ricciardo ninth but 1.5 seconds adrift of the pace. McLaren confirmed during the session that both cars were running the upgraded Renault PU, while the works team confirmed that only Ricciardo used the updated engine in FP1.