FP1: Bottas tops Ferrari duo, Stroll crashes

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas topped the first practice session at Barcelona, Spain. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix winner was faster than Vettel and Leclerc as both Mercedes and Ferrari trialed their car upgrades.

The Finnish Mercedes driver enjoyed his heavily upgraded W08 to set the fastest time, even though in the end it turned out to be just a tenth quicker than Vettel best. Things didn't go fully according to plan though as Bottas was stuck in the garage in the final part of the session with a suspected hydraulic leak.

Lewis Hamilton ended up 4th and was more than half a second down on his team mate. Still, no one else really came close, with the fastest Haas in the hands of Grosjean another 3 tenths further down. Carlos Sainz firmly put McLaren in the top 10, follwoed by Magnusssen, Gasly, Kvyat and the Renault duo.

Max Verstappen stranded in 12th position as an oil leak prematurely ended his session. Honda immediately started an investigation and confirmed they would be changing to a Spec 2 engine ahead of FP2, instead of the planned change after FP2.

Apart from these issues, the session was relatively straight forward until Lance Stroll upset the situation as he lost control of his car 1 minute from the end. Snap oversteer caught the Canadian out, sending him and his Force India into the barriers at Turn 9. Stroll escaped without harm, but the crash caused the session to end under a red flag. Stroll ended the session in 13th place.

At the very back, Williams were trying out various new parts, and seemed to be slightly closer to the rest of the field. The team have arrived in Spain with their parts shortage resolved, and aiming to finally get their season going.