Max Verstappen laid down the early marker for the 2023 Spanish GP by going fastest in his Red Bull in Free Practice 1, 0.768s ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.
Ferrari, who brought a new sidepod upgrade to the Circuit de Catalunya, had Carles Leclerc eighth fastest and Carlos Sainz in ninth, with the Spaniard on the soft tyres, and the Monegasque on mediums and running the old side pods.
Meanwhile, Mercedes were also able to get a better idea of the performance of the upgrades they took to Monaco, and had George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in 10th and 12th, respectively.
Pirelli handed teams two extra sets of hard compound tyres which are for testing, as the Italian tyre manufacturer had to reconfigure the composition of tyres due to the 2023 F1 cars’ increased performance which are putting the current tyres under more pressure than expected.
F1 2023 Spanish GP – Practice 1 Results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:14.606 |
| 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 | Zhou Guanyu | 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 | Alexander Albon | Williams | +2.024 |
