Hamilton tops first practice as Mercedes dominate

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

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.