The weekend of Spanish Grand Prix starts with Mercedes at the top of the timesheet. Best time (1.16.785) for Valtteri Bottas which precedes Lewis Hamilton by thirty-nine thousandths of a second. Good start for Ferrari with the fourth time of Charles Leclerc and the fifth of Sebastian Vettel, separated from each other by eleven thousandths but more than a second away from the top … The first challenger of the Black Arrows remains Max Verstappen, third at 939 thousandths from Bottas.
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He won the Austrian Grand Prix which kicked off the World Championship last July 5th, then he … rejoined the ranks, returning Lewis Hamilton to center stage but Valtteri Bottas in Barcelona he gave a sign of vitality by beating the Black King by 39 thousandths of a second. To the Montmelo, for the first free practice session of a never so hot Spanish Grand Prix, the Black Arrows immediately showed a qualifying pace unattainable for the competition. Max Verstappen, who with his success last Sunday at Silverstone snatched the second place from Bottas in the general classification, was the only one able to remain under one second behind the top (939 thousandths). The delay of the Ferrari, fourth and fifth with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, respectively separated by one second and 185 thousandths and one second and 196 thousandths from Bottas. Positive performance especially for the German, usually further away from his teammate and here on the track with the new chassis, replacing the one damaged in England. Vettel seemed more relaxed and focused than in the first GP of the season, even if rumors continue to circulate in the paddock about an early termination of his relationship with Maranello.
There is a bit of Ferrari (the power unit) in the sixth box of the rank, occupied by the Haas di Romain Grosjean which precedes the best of the highly contested Racing Points, that of the Mexican Sergio Perez, on his return to the wheel after Silvestone’s forced double stop due to the positivity to Covid. His teammate Lance Stroll closes the top ten, behind Alexander Albon (eighth with Red Bull) and Kevin Magnussen, ninth with the other Haas-Ferrari.
Rather disappointing to start the weekend for the house idol Carlos Sainz, author of the eleventh time almost two seconds behind Bottas and for McLaren in general, given that Lando Norris is just beyond: thirteenth. The road is all uphill for Alfa Romeo too, fifteenth with Antonio Giovinazzi and sixteenth with Kimi Raikkonen. Twentieth and last performance for the Israeli Roy Nissany who, limited to the first session, took the place of George Russell on the Williams, exactly fifteen years after the umpteenth exploit (so to speak) of his father Chanoch with the Minardi at the 2005 Hungarian GP.
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