Bottas edges Verstappen to top first Barcelona practice

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas went fastest to edge Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the first practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix. Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton ended up third fastest.

The session was paused briefly early on for a Nikita Mazepin off. Haas F1 Team’s Russian driver went off at Turn 8, but he could later carry on and racked up a total of 22 laps.

The session was also red-flagged with 15 minutes remaining as Robert Kubica beached his Alfa Romeo at Turn 10. The Pole took over the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Räikkönen, who was forced to watch out in the opening session of the Barcelona weekend. The 36-year-old finished 19th fastest, although he could have ended up much higher up the order as he was on a promising lap before beaching his car in the gravel.

When the lights went green again, drivers were keen to get out on to the circuit to get practice ont he modified layout. While most of the drivers had already used their two fresh sets of tyres by that point of the session, the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers still had a fresh set available.

Both Red Bull racers used a fresh set of soft compound to find out the track limits. While Sergio Perez only recorded a time of 1m19.349 to finish in P9, his team mate Max Verstappen jumped to P2 with a last-minute attack on the softs. In the end, the Imola race winner was only 33 thousands of a second down on Bottas’ benchmark time.

While Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz spent the majority of the opening session at Barcelona on the Hard compound, thy were the only one to try out the yellow-walled Medium rubber at the end of the session. The Monegasque and the Spaniard ended up a promising fifth and sixth on the mediums.