Key events
Only five drivers have clocked a time thus far, but of them Lance Stroll has gone fastest. The Haas cars of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman look to be lacking a smidge of pace.
Q1: There’s a few cars hanging back in the garages with the weather in Barcelona very warm and clear. We’re under way – who can set the early pace?
Right we’re almost ready to get going.
There’s lots of talk of various drivers “porpoising” in practice, especially on slightly older tyres. That basically means the car bumping up and down.
The front wing crackdown “doesn’t seem to be effecting McLaren” is the word from down in the pit lanes … “there doesn’t seem to be a change in the pecking order,” says Sky Sports’ Naomi Schiff.
So, can we just expect Piastri and Norris to go quickest, as per?
Lewis Hamilton will hope this issue doesn’t plague him when qualifying commences in 20 minutes or so.
There’s lots of focus on the grid’s two Spanish drivers this weekend, for obvious reasons. Neither Carlos Sainz Jr nor Fernando Alonso have particularly troubled the sharp end of the leaderboard this season but could be inspired by a home crowd.
Let’s not forget Alonso is 43 now so it’s difficult to be too harsh on his failure to pick up a point this season. The Williams of Sainz and Alexander Albon have generated speed at times and could, possibly, push towards the podium places.
There’s plenty of live sport going on around Europe today. Here are our other offerings, plus the Champions League final buildup.
The FIA’s clampdown on the flexing of front wings has dominated all the preview talk in Barcelona. Let’s see what effect it has. More details from our man Giles Richards here.
Piastri was the quickest in practice with Norris around half a second slower. That’s a fair bit of time in elite terms. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third fastest then came Russell and Verstappen, the Red Bull driver who was down nearly a whole second from Piastri.
Practice is one thing though … qualifying is often very different.
Preamble
Good afternoon and welcome to our coverage of Spanish GP qualifying in Barcelona. It feels only right, given that the footballing giants of Paris and Milan are competing in Munich tonight, that Formula 1 is representing Spain this weekend.
Two Englishmen will hope to go fastest this afternoon, with Lando Norris and George Russell chasing Oscar Piastri at the top of the championship standings this year, with the Dutchman Max Verstappen – slowish in practice so far – always likely to have a say. It feels like the established order of this season has now been set, with the McLarens quicker than everyone else, but Verstappen refusing to go gentle in that good night in a rusty old Red Bull. The rest are in their slipstream.
It all gets going at around 3pm so stick with us for all the buildup and then the qualifying sessions.
