Hamilton tops first practice as Mercedes dominate

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunyaes

Lewis Hamilton topped the first practice session at Circuit de Catalunya, narrowly edging out his team mate Valtteri Bottas for the top spot. During the session, Mercedes were extremely dominant and looked much more at ease with their upgraded W08.

While Mercedes were nearly a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, this morning's fastest Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel lost some track time due to mechanical issues early on. He ended up fourth fastest anyway, completing a similar amount of laps as others, but in a shorter timeframe.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was 5th fastest, fairly close to the Ferraris, and possibly a sign to the improvements that come with the upgraded Red Bull RB13. Team mate Daniel Ricciardo was sixth fastest, followed by the Haas duo of Magnussen and Grosjean.

Nico Hulkbenberg and Carlos Sainz completed the top 10.

At the very bottom of the timesheet, FP1 tester Sergei Sirotkin used Jolyon Palmer's Renault, but didn't get further than 10 laps. Still, could be worse, as home hero Fernando Alonso came to a smokey halt just 3 corners into his first lap. The Spaniard was unable to rejoin while McLaren were forced to switch the engine on his McLaren Honda.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:21.521-28
277Valtteri BottasMercedes1:21.550+0.029s30
37Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:22.456+0.935s24
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1:22.600+1.079s23
533Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:22.706+1.185s22
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:23.084+1.563s17
720Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:23.670+2.149s22
88Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:23.758+2.237s23
927Nico HulkenbergRenault1:23.993+2.472s24
1055Carlos SainzToro Rosso1:24.004+2.483s21
1111Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:24.188+2.667s23
1231Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:24.324+2.803s22
132Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Honda1:24.400+2.879s24
1419Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:24.618+3.097s34
1526Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1:24.642+3.121s18
169Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:24.966+3.445s23
1794Pascal WehrleinSauber Ferrari1:25.182+3.661s24
1818Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:25.919+4.398s34
1946Sergey SirotkinRenault1:26.293+4.772s10
2014Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Honda--1