Red flags flew in Friday’s practice! The race weekend in Catalonia is in full swing

After a really interesting race in Portugal at the Algarve circuit, the race weekend in Spain got underway at a very familiar circuit near Barcelona. What did the first practice sessions bring?

This year will be the very first time that the race will be held in Spain. Every year, Barcelona regularly hosts pre-season tests, but this year’s was held in Bahrain at the circuit in Sakhir.

The start of practice itself brought yellow flags, which were taken care of by Nikita Mazepin in the Haas car. He lost control of his car at turn eight and found himself off the track, but was able to return to the circuit.

However, no other driver was able to do so. Even red flags were waved in practice after the incident involving Robert Kubica, who had taken to the track as a test driver for the Alfa Romeo. The Polish driver failed to control his monoposto at turn ten and ended up in a duck and was unable to get back out.

Bottas was fastest after the first practice session, beating Max Verstappen by 33 thousandths of a second. Hamilton finished third ahead of Norris and both Ferraris. Both Aston Martin cars were also in the top ten, with Sebastian Vettel even leading the field for a while.

Bottas was replaced at the front by his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the second practice session. Third place went to Charles Leclerc ahead of both Alpine cars. However, the second practice session was treated more like a test run by many teams, with both Red Bull drivers, for example, finishing in the last two positions of the top ten.

The second practice session did not go well for McLaren, whose drivers were twelfth and fifteenth. What is clear, however, is that the drivers will have to be more careful of the kerbs at each corner. Already in FP1 (first practice on Friday – author’s note) Vettel damaged part of his front wing on the kerb.

In FP2, on the other hand, something flew off Sainz’s Ferrari. ” It was a very good day, which went very smoothly. I changed my approach a little bit compared to Portimao. I’m taking it more step by step. Overall, I’m driving better and I have more control of the car. Hopefully we can build on today’s promising day in qualifying. It is particularly important on this track.”

“We know where to improve. Now we just have to wait and see if we can improve in the areas that we are not good at yet. I think our maximum for now is to be right behind Mercedes and Red Bull. If there are some pleasant surprises, we could be even higher. But our main goal at the moment is to be in third place.”

Tomorrow we have the final third practice session and then qualifying for Sunday’s race. It starts at 15:00, so don’t miss it!

Source