Hamilton Tops 2024 Spanish GP Practice

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton topped Friday Practice for 2024 Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Hamilton topped FP2 with the fastest lap time of the day from home hero, Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris – who had topped FP1 – on a strong day for the three immediate teams chasing Red Bull at the summit.

Now, here is a roundup of all the action across FP1 and FP2 at 2024 Spanish GP.

 

FP1

Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas was first out on track but it was RB’s Yuki Tsunoda who initially set the pace on 1m 16.917, before George Russell and Sainz lowered the benchmark but Max Verstappen topped a hectic opening half-hour with 1m 15.424 as many ran the hard tyres.

Attention turned to Qualifying simulations early into the second half of the session as Russell then Sainz went quickest on the medium tyre, but Verstappen opted for the soft tyre and posted 1m 14.252 to go fastest in the 32nd minute.

Norris however set a session topping time of 1m 14.228 on the soft tyre in the 35th minute to demote Verstappen to second, whilst Sainz and Russell were third and fourth on the medium tyre.

Hamilton, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly also set their fastest times on the medium tyres, unlike everyone else whose fastest laps were set on the soft tyre compound.

There however was a brief red flag towards the end of the 38th minute due to debris from an Aston Martin car, although the action quickly resumed four minutes later.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1m 14.228
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.024
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.344
4	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.384
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 0.464
6	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.639
7	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 0.683
8	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 0.858
9	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.994
10	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.189
11	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 1.206
12	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	+ 1.244
13	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.256
14	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.284
15	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	+ 1.352
16	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	+ 1.388
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 1.416
18	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+ 1.524
19	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.637
20	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	+ 1.688

 

FP2

Hamilton was first out on track and set a benchmark time of 1m 15.057 on mediums but Norris displaced him with 1m 14.197, although the pair would be quickly split by Russell in a British 1-2-3, but Russell in the 10th minute bettered Norris’ time by 0.108 seconds with 1m 14.089.

Piastri, Zhou, Albon and Sargeant were the only drivers to do their opening stint on the hard tyre before attention switched to the Qualifying simulations.

Sainz in the 25th minute was the first driver on the soft tyre to better Russell’s medium-tyre effort as the Spaniard posted 1m 13.286 to go top, as Norris fell 0.033s shy of his ex teammate.

Hamilton however was amongst the last soft-tyre runners and went top with a session-topping 1m 13.264 in the 29th minute, which wasn’t beaten as Sainz and Norris finished second and third quickest ahead of Gasly, Verstappen and Leclerc.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m 13.264
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.022
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.055
4	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 0.179
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.240
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.333
7	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.358
8	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.458
9	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 0.502
10	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	+ 0.660
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 0.757
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+ 0.789
13	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 0.817
14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.827
15	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	+ 0.947
16	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	+ 0.993
17	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	+ 1.081
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.138
19	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.543
20	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+ 1.806