Having become the only driver to get under the 1’13” barrier, McLaren's championship leader Oscar Piastri was quickest on the first day of practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabó delivers teams' and drivers' reactions.

McLaren

“It was an up-and-down day, but think it ended pretty well. The conditions are a bit tricky with these temperatures, so it’s going to make for an interesting day tomorrow.

"Our competitors look quick as well, so I think it’s going to be a very tight battle in Qualifying. We’ll make some tweaks overnight to put ourselves in the strongest position for tomorrow.”

Lando Norris - FP1: 1:13.718, P1; FP2: 1:13.070, P4

“It was a reasonable Friday, the car felt good in general. We experimented with a few things in FP2, which was useful, and I think we have a good direction to go in for tomorrow.”

Mercedes

"I felt good in the car today. Barcelona is a great track to race at, so it was a nice feeling being out there and getting a good number of laps on the board. Our qualifying runs looked decent in the second practice session, and it was nice to be closer to where we hope to be performance wise.

"We did a lot of long run work today too and compared to other teams, we weren't quite as competitive as on the single lap. We experimented with some different approaches across our cars though and that gives us plenty of good data to dig through tonight. We will also do the usual overnight work and I'm confident that we can take a step forward tomorrow. Let's see what the next two days bring."

"That was an interesting Friday. My first few laps on low fuel were proving tricky in FP1. I suffered from some bouncing in that first hour, mostly in the high-speed segments of the track. However, everything started to come together in FP2. I felt more confident lap after lap, and I was able to get into a good rhythm on the single runs.

"We purposefully adopted a slightly different approach on our long runs to George. We now will take the time to look at all the data we collected throughout the day and evaluate what the right direction is for the rest of the weekend. I can see we are making progress though, and with the overnight work tonight, I'm hopeful we will be able to have a competitive weekend."

Red Bull

"It is always nice to be here in Barcelona and enjoyable to drive this track. It was pretty hot out there today, especially for the tyres. I think that it was an okay Friday for us and I felt a bit happier with the car. However we are still not where we want to be but will just continue to keep working at it.

"There are always ways where we can look at what we are doing and maximise our performance and find more time. Of course, every track is different but we are getting there with the set up of the car. I have also had Fridays where things weren’t working so I would say this is a bit more positive."

“It was a tricky first day on track here in Barcelona. We made some progress between FP1 and FP2 which was positive, but we need to work to understand the gap currently as I was not expecting that. It's hard to tell the exact limitation that we have and what's causing us to struggle. We have a lot to debrief tonight but hopefully we can turn it around for tomorrow and have a good Qualifying."

Ferrari

"It’s very hot on track, which makes things a bit trickier, with the grip not being as good as we’d like it to be. However, it has been a more positive day than we had expected, there is more performance in the car and I hope we will unlock some more ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying.

"There’s still quite a bit of work ahead of us, but we don’t seem to be too far off, so we will focus on a few key areas this evening to extract what we can."

"It was a challenging day, not just for us but across the grid, with everyone seeming to experience confusing car behaviour and mixed performance. On our side, we made changes in FP2 that will give us a direction to work in overnight when we’ll focus on breaking down the data and making improvements ahead of tomorrow."

Aston Martin

"The car feels similar to the last few events so I don't think things have changed too much in terms of the new directive on front wings.

"We've been fine-tuning the car setup today and we are having to deal with the warm weather. It's been a normal Friday for us and it was nice to see all of the fans around the circuit."

Lance Stroll - FP1: 1:14.786, P12; FP2: 1:13.839, P16

"Positive sessions today, we managed to get some good laps in and also learned a couple of things, which we need to look into further tonight to see where we can improve. Our pace looked all right but we still have lots of areas to look into."

Racing Bulls

“Heading into the weekend, I still feel confident in the car. We had some work to do today, and whilst we’re not entirely happy with the balance yet, it’s always tricky around this circuit with high track temperatures.

"We’re optimistic that we can make the necessary changes and be competitive tomorrow. It’s going to be tight with the other midfield teams, but everything’s still to play for in Qualifying."

“It’s been a positive day and a good start to the weekend. We’ve got a strong base to build on, but obviously tomorrow afternoon is what really counts. We’ll keep working on improving the car.

"Everybody’s chasing it and I think we were all a bit further away at the start of FP1 because of the new front wing, however we’ll still be chasing the balance. I could definitely feel the difference in the car and we’re in a good place right now, but obviously we’ll be expecting every team to improve.”

Alpine

“We have a lot of things to go through after a busy day of Practice in Barcelona. With some new parts on the car, the feeling has changed a little bit and, in the end, I was happy with the step in performance we made from Free Practice 1 to Free Practice 2.

"We have improved our understanding with some of the new car characteristics and there is definitely more to find going into tomorrow. At this stage of the race weekend, we are in a better place than we were in Monaco.

"The car feels in a good window and tomorrow it will be important to refine some details if we are to go up another level like other teams tend to do on Saturdays. Right now, a good feeling and I am aiming to take that into Qualifying.”

“It was not the best Friday on my side of the garage with two quite tricky Practice sessions. We struggled with the general balance of the car, especially on the harder compounds.

"I just did not have a great feeling in the car, so we need to take a look at the data and aim to find some improvements for tomorrow. I am hopeful these are straightforward to find as it is clear there is some pace in the car at this track.

"We have Free Practice 3 tomorrow where we will need some good running to improve things ahead of Qualifying. We will continue our hard work with the team and I am looking ahead to tomorrow ready for a better performance.”

Williams

"I’ve only done one session so far this weekend, so there’s a bit of catching up to do. We’ve definitely got a better car than last year, but this track has never been the strongest for us and the track temperature is making it more difficult. We’ll take a look at it overnight and see what changes we can make to prepare for Qualifying tomorrow."

"It was tough out there today, but we expected it. The type of corners here are not the best for our car and right from the start of FP1, I felt how tricky it was.

"We tried to do some setup changes, and they seemed to go in the right direction, but we still can’t find enough lap time to be further up. We’ll try to take another step for tomorrow, as there is lots to understand and work on but we’ll keep pushing all weekend!"

Kick Sauber

"It was a solid Friday overall. No major issues throughout the sessions, although the track conditions were among the hottest we've experienced this season so far. The car felt good right from the start.

"The upgrade package we brought for this weekend appears to be working as intended — the balance has improved, and I felt more confident behind the wheel straight away.

"Tonight, we’ll go through our usual routine: analyse the data, fine-tune the setup, and look for any further gains. The midfield is extremely tight once again, so every tenth will count. It’s going to be a close fight tomorrow in qualifying."

"Overall, it’s been a straightforward Friday: we went through the full programme without any issues, which is always a positive way to start the weekend.

"I haven’t had the new parts on the car yet; I have been running the same package we used in previous races, while Nico tested the updated specs. From what we have gathered so far, the upgrades look promising, which is definitely encouraging for the rest of the weekend.

"As always, the field is incredibly close: hopefully, the new parts and a clean, strong lap will help us unlock that extra bit of performance and put us right in the fight."

Haas

“It wasn’t easy, we need to understand a lot of things as the car was lacking here and there; some balance, a bit of inconsistency in some corners, and some overall grip. We need to look at how we optimise that better. There was only one real lap on the softs, there will be a few more tomorrow, and hopefully, we can work on it. On the technical directive, it didn’t make a big shift or change for us, it was very similar.”

“It was a tough day, especially this afternoon struggling a little bit with the balance in high speed and having a bit of a moment which lost us some time, so that’s a shame. We have a bit of work to do overnight to work on the predictability of the car, but I think if we can find a good window we can be okay because in FP1 we showed pretty decent pace.”

“As always, I’d like to give appreciation to the team for the great opportunity today. The track was really hot, so it was difficult out there and it was really easy to overheat the tyre, so we had to manage that quite a lot. I was suffering in braking, and in general there was lots to improve for FP2, and after the session we debriefed and some of those changes were made before FP2 started.

"I felt a lot more confident in the car compared to Bahrain and made a big step, and I have more FP1 sessions later in the season so I will keep preparing for them.”