Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated Friday Practice at 2023 Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen dominated FP1 throughout despite Pirelli introducing a test tyre to be ran across both sessions, but survived an early threat in FP2 to comfortably top the second session from Fernando Alonso.
Many teams meanwhile brought upgrades which saw several drivers focused on data gathering programmes across both sessions, which left the pecking order looking unpredictable heading into Saturday’s FP3 and Qualifying.
Now here is a full roundup of all the action across FP1 and FP2 for 2023 Spanish GP.
FP1
Home favourite, Fernando Alonso was first out on track for an installation lap whilst others quickly began early long runs to test out a new hard tyre prototype – which will come into use at the British Grand Prix from 7-9 July.
Some drivers however opted not to run the prototype in FP1 and instead ran on medium tyres aside from Haas’ Nico Hulknberg, who jumped straight onto the soft tyre and run in the top-ten for much of the opening stint.
Verstappen meanwhile set a dominant benchmark time on the prototype tyre of 1m 17.425 which he eventually lowered to 1m 16.583 in the eighth minute, before he switched to mediums and further lowered the fastest lap to 1m 15.945 in the 18th minute.
Verstappen and Sergio Perez were split by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at the halfway mark of the session, but the reigning two-time champion opted for an early soft tyre run and set a session-topping 1m 14.606 in the 32nd minute, just moments after Perez had displaced him.
Perez proceeded to settle for the second-fastest lap time ahead of third-placed finisher in Monaco – Esteban Ocon who rounded out the top three.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 14.606 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.768 |
| 3 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.812 |
| 4 | Nyck De Vries | AlphaTauri | + 0.898 |
| 5 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.939 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.941 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.083 |
| 8 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 1.088 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 1.120 |
| 10 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 1.147 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.177 |
| 12 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 1.239 |
| 13 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.300 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.309 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.333 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.372 |
| 17 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 1.747 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 1.855 |
| 19 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.900 |
| 20 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 2.024 |
FP2
Alonso again was first out of the garage but opted for a practice start at the pit exit, which meant that De Vries was first actually out onto the track as a mixture of drivers opted for the hard test prototype, hard and medium tyres.
Sainz though set the initial benchmark time of 1m 14.999 on soft tyres in the fifth minute ahead of his teammate, Leclerc by 0.600s as Verstappen went third-fastest with 1m 15.655 on the hard prototype tyre.
Verstappen however soon switched to the medium tyre and posted 1m 14.968 to go fastest by 0.031 seconds, even despite struggling to control his Red Bull in the closing corners of the lap.
Sainz though was first to attempt a qualifying simulation as he went fastest in the 22nd minute with 1m 14.274, yet Leclerc went 0.028s faster just seconds later to put himself top of the timesheet.
Verstappen however responded just four minutes later with a session-topping 1m 13.907 as Haas’ Hulkenberg put in a suprise second-fastest lap time of 1m 14.177 just moments later.
The German however was demoted to third after Alonso went second-fastest in the 32nd minute – albeit 0.170s shy of Verstappen’s lap time, as Perez and Ocon rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth respectively.
Race simulations meanwhile saw drivers focused on tyre management which suggests that the race could be a two-stop strategy for many teams.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 13.907 |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.170 |
| 3 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.270 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.312 |
| 5 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.335 |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.339 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.367 |
| 8 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.485 |
| 9 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.541 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.550 |
| 11 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.642 |
| 12 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.676 |
| 13 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 0.678 |
| 14 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.787 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.806 |
| 16 | Nyck De Vries | AlphaTauri | + 0.878 |
| 17 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.933 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.103 |
| 19 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.149 |
| 20 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.508 |
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