Bottas fastest in low grip Spanish GP FP1

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was fastest in an incident-packed opening practice for Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Drivers struggled for grip throughout the session, with low track temperatures and a conservative tyre allocation conspiring to make conditions difficult. Bottas was one of a number of drivers to spin in the opening stages.

On the soft compound tyre, Bottas recorded a time initially 0.3 seconds faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton who was second on the timesheet. Bottas later increased his advantage, setting a 1m18.148s time on the same set of soft tyres, which by this point had completed 11 laps.

Hamilton finished the session 0.849s adrift of Bottas in second, with his best time also delivered on soft rubber.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third. He was a tenth behind Hamilton, despite both Ferraris posting their session best lap on supersoft tyres. Vettel spun on the entry to Turn 13 early on.

Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull, vaulting above Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari in the final moments of the session. Verstappen’s 1m19.187s personal best was posted on medium tyres which had already been used for 17 laps.

His Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo suffered premature end to his morning session after he hit the barriers at Turn 4.

Drivers struggled with a tailwind into the corner and while Brendon Hartley and Romain Grosjean also went off at the same corner, Ricciardo bounced further into the gravel trap and was the only one of the three to find the outside wall.

Ricciardo ended up seventh, behind McLaren’s Fernando Alonso in sixth. Haas’ Romain Grosjean, the second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.

Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc finished 11th and 12th respectively. Leclerc was aggrieved at the end of the session, accusing Magnussen of blocking him in the final chicane as well as on the pit-straight. The two nearly collided in the case of the latter incident.

Williams ended the session at the foot of the times. Robert Kubica received his first of three planned FP1 outings this season. He finished 19th. Lance Stroll was 20th, having missed the second half of the session after running into the gravel trap and glancing the wall at Turn 5.