Lando Norris of McLaren set the fastest pace in the opening practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, appearing unaffected by the newly enforced rules regarding flexible front wings. His performance placed him ahead of reigning world champion Max Verstappen.
Coming off his breakthrough victory at the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix just five days prior, a win that has significantly boosted his world championship bid, Norris quickly demonstrated strong form at the hot Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. His quickest lap on the soft tires was an impressive 1:13.718.
Norris was 0.367 seconds quicker than Red Bull`s Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes secured the third fastest time, finishing 0.378 seconds behind Norris and showing promising single-lap speed at the start of the weekend in Barcelona.
Other top runners included Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari, who was fourth, just ahead of Norris`s teammate and fellow championship contender, Oscar Piastri, in fifth place. The rest of the competitors were over half a second off Norris`s benchmark time.
Analyzing Norris`s performance, 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg commented, “The big question, has that Monaco win given Lando that necessary boost of confidence that he has found his mojo again and is back to his best?”
It looked like it out there, he was absolutely confident and flying.
Max Verstappen spent roughly 20 minutes in the pit garage during the latter half of the session, where his Red Bull crew seemed to be making adjustments to the rear of his car.
Impact of New Front Wing Rules in Focus
This session was the first under the stricter load tests applied to front wings, a measure introduced by the sport`s governing body to prevent teams from gaining aerodynamic advantages through bodywork flexing at high speed.
As a consequence of these new rules, many teams introduced updated front wing designs for the opening practice. Notably, McLaren was one of the few teams not running a new wing, suggesting they had already implemented a compliant design at an earlier race this season.
McLaren`s car had previously been mentioned by some rivals as potentially benefiting significantly from wing flexibility. However, the team from Woking has consistently asserted that the rule changes would not have a major negative impact on their performance.
Norris`s immediate pace-setting times, recorded on both the hard and soft tire compounds, appear to lend further credibility to McLaren`s stance.
Mercedes was another leading team that did not introduce a new front wing design. However, they did bring updates to the W16`s floor and rear wing as they aim to improve performance after two recent challenging events.
George Russell was the leading Mercedes driver, finishing 11th, although his quickest lap was set on the slower medium compound tires. Kimi Antonelli was 18th in the second Mercedes, also running on mediums.
RB (formerly AlphaTauri) showed strong pace, finishing the session with both cars in the top 10: Liam Lawson was sixth and Isack Hadjar was eighth. Oliver Bearman secured eighth place for Haas. Ryo Hirakawa, the Japanese reserve driver, participated in the session for Haas in place of Esteban Ocon, fulfilling a requirement for teams to provide track time to inexperienced drivers. Hirakawa finished 17th and was involved in the only notable incident of the session, briefly running off into the gravel at Turn 10.
Victor Martins, substituting for Alex Albon at Williams, finished 19th quickest.
