McLaren lead practice one in Spain
Lewis Hamilton was quickest in first practice in Barcelona
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button got McLaren’s Spanish Grand Prix weekend off to a strong start by topping the times sheets in the first practice session.
Michael Schumacher put the revised Mercedes third fastest as practice got started at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The first driver to set a lap was Timo Glock, trying the revised version of the VR-01. The car shed its left turning vane on its first lap of the Barcelona track and Glock spent much of the next hour in the pits.
Felipe Massa made an early start for Ferrari, setting the fastest time to begin with using the team’s version of the F-duct for the first time.
Team mate Fernando Alonso also tried the blown rear wing and did back-to-back tests with the F10 in its ‘unblown’ configuration.
Over at Mercedes, Michael Schumacher put the first laps on the updated W01 with its distinctive new airbox. He briefly took over the top of the times sheets but was demoted by the two McLarens.
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton waited until the half-way point of the session before taking to the track. Button went quickest to begin with before being beaten by his team mate with a 1’21.134.
Another team running a significant upgrade package this weekend are Lotus. Heikki Kovalainen’s best time was 4.1 seconds off the quickest, with a two second gap to the midfield, suggesting they have made progress.
Towards the end of the session Nico Hülkenberg stopped on the track, a puff of smoke from the rear of his Williams suggesting he’d suffered an engine failure.
Pedro de la Rosa also ended his session early after suffering a gearbox failure on his Sauber, failing to set a time. And Button had to abort a run after running over debris on his way out of the pits, damaging the floor on his McLaren.
At HRT, Christian Klien made his first appearance as a reserve driver since 2007 – and beat regular driver Bruno Senna by half a second.
| Pos. | Car | Driver | Car | Best lap | Laps | |
| 1 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’21.134 | 21 | |
| 2 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’21.672 | 0.538 | 14 |
| 3 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’21.716 | 0.582 | 12 |
| 4 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’22.011 | 0.877 | 27 |
| 5 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’22.026 | 0.892 | 22 |
| 6 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’22.070 | 0.936 | 19 |
| 7 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’22.202 | 1.068 | 22 |
| 8 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’22.258 | 1.124 | 19 |
| 9 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’22.397 | 1.263 | 23 |
| 10 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’22.492 | 1.358 | 26 |
| 11 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’22.588 | 1.454 | 24 |
| 12 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’22.975 | 1.841 | 22 |
| 13 | 14 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’23.030 | 1.896 | 21 |
| 14 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’23.110 | 1.976 | 31 |
| 15 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’23.284 | 2.15 | 19 |
| 16 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’23.312 | 2.178 | 22 |
| 17 | 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’23.471 | 2.337 | 20 |
| 18 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’25.329 | 4.195 | 17 |
| 19 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’26.244 | 5.11 | 20 |
| 20 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’26.340 | 5.206 | 23 |
| 21 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’26.694 | 5.56 | 24 |
| 22 | 20 | Christian Klien | HRT-Cosworth | 1’27.250 | 6.116 | 26 |
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’27.752 | 6.618 | 27 |
| 24 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 3 |
2010 Spanish Grand Prix
- 2010 Spanish Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Whitmarsh: Rim failure put Hamilton out
- Hamilton denies Webber a perfect result (Spanish Grand Prix facts and stats)
- Spanish Grand Prix in pictures
- Super start helps Alguersuari to points finish (Spanish Grand Prix analysis)
- Spanish Grand Prix fastest laps
- Webber dominates as Hamilton crashes out of second
- Spanish Grand Prix result
- Championship points after Spain
- Rate the race – Spain
Image (C) Force India F1 Team
TommyB said on 7th May 2010, 10:47
Looks like McLaren have the advantage. Going to be interesting for Qualifying, I think a McLaren on the front row with Vettel possibly.
Todfod said on 7th May 2010, 11:03
I hate to admit it .. but it doesn’t look like Ferrari are gonna make the front row. They were definitely struggling with the F-Duct today, and have wasted an entire session just testing a particular part. Lets hope they can turn it around in FP2
TommyB said on 7th May 2010, 11:30
I think they’ll have the race pace though. Well Alonso will anyway, I still think Alonso can take the win.
steph said on 7th May 2010, 12:08
Ferrari are always nowhere in practice as are Red Bull while Mclaren usually are near front as is Rosberg. Mclaren probably are quicker and they need to be but its first practice a lot can happen so don’t write off Ferrari just yet
US_Peter said on 7th May 2010, 18:26
Yep. That ^
I was gonna say the same. Getting old hearing people freak every FP and say “Ferrari and Red Bull are slow!”
macahan said on 7th May 2010, 15:20
It’s way to early to say anything yet. Just look on any of the FP1 and FP2 so far this year and you can see the order doesn’t get established really until FP3 generally. So much depends on what program they run and frequently Ferrari and RedBull both for example seem to run heavier fuel loads during FP1&2 and not until FP3 they run light fuel load runs. How often have RBR been bit down in FP1&2 but stolen the show in FP3 and Quali?
Damon said on 7th May 2010, 10:56
Quite a typical practice session; McLarens at the top, Ferraris in the midfield and Kubica on 7th.
The Williams seem to be struggling.
GeeMac said on 7th May 2010, 10:57
It’s too early to say the McLaren are definitely on top, Red Bull are famous for sandbagging on Fridays. The revised Mercedes seems to be more to MSC’s liking, but again, we’ll have to wait and see if he is starting to turn the tide on Nico.
Great to see Lotus have made a good step forward, and Klien’s input should assist HRT’s progress.
GeeMac said on 7th May 2010, 11:00
Just noticed that the 8 Cosworth powered cars were also the 8 slowest cars to set a time.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 7th May 2010, 11:36
It’s been like that once or twice in Friday sessions this year.
Matt said on 7th May 2010, 11:12
I don’t think Red Bull are Sand Bagging but merely concentrating on race pace rather than qualifying pace as this is their weakness, McLaren appears to be the opposite
BasCB said on 7th May 2010, 11:02
The difference between the times set by Kovalainen and Trulli is big, did the do different things with fuel loads or comparing parts?
Virgin is shedding parts on track again, wat were the rates on that in betting Branson?
Klein shows he knows how to drive a F1 car, he does know the track a little better in this equipment than Senna does.
sato113 said on 7th May 2010, 11:03
go klien!!! sauber are sponsored bby nurger king for this race!
renzo said on 7th May 2010, 11:08
McLaren have been always fast on fridays, thinking even that last year’s lap record was Vettel’s 1.19.9 and this year’s cars seems even to be fastest: so I won’t give much importance on this.
Interestingly Ferrari have the top speed of 310 km/h which makes me think that their f-duct works properly on the f10
SciF1Droid said on 7th May 2010, 11:15
Nothing unusual really with this mornings practice, except Schumi being 3rd of course… lets hope this is the turn around we’ve been waiting for… and I hope the changes have not affected Nico badly.
However, again, we don’t know the fuel loads…
…for Michael & Nico
…for Hamilton & Button
…for McLaren, Red Bull & Ferrari (who are pretty much always midfield on Fridays)
Only positives are that McLaren should be there or thereabouts in Qualy and the Race, and Schumi has started well.
Roll on FP2
Jarred Walmsley said on 7th May 2010, 11:22
It does seem that the new Mercedes works well for both drivers which is always good, hopefully we’ll see a return to form for Michael this weekend
BasCB said on 7th May 2010, 11:23
Maybe McLaren are getting there to get the car on the first row, i am thinking of Lewis there. But Red Bull have never gone for the best times on the Fridays, just like Ferrari they are rather concentrating on race pace.
Are there any pictures of the Burger King logo on Saubars cars?
Where are they compared to testing times or last years times? If I remember this year times were below 1.20 in the end of testing.
wasiF1 said on 7th May 2010, 15:16
Mclaren needs to get their qualifying right, that has been their weak point this season so far.
MacLeod said on 7th May 2010, 11:38
Paul di Resta beats Vitantonio Liuzzi also with 3 tens or Sutil car is faster or he was running lighter. Putting Klien in the HRT is bad for Senna morale.
sumedh said on 7th May 2010, 11:48
Massa is 7 tenths of Alonso!! Quite a lot.
He needs to up his pace significantly. Otherwise the Kubika-to-Ferrari rumors might turn true.
Good to see Schumi beating Rosberg. But still, if they are behind Mclaren, then they are behind RedBull as well (who are surely sandbagging). But can expect Schumi to beat Massa in qualifying.
My predictions for Q3: Vettel, Hamilton, Webber, Alonso, Button, Schumi, Rosberg, Massa in that order.
BTW, where is the predictions page for Spanish GP?
steph said on 7th May 2010, 12:07
It’s only practice. Massa needs to up his game but it’s too soon to judge this weekend. He spent a lot of time out on track first when the track is at its worst plus he went off which was probably due to him carrying far too much speed while getting used to the F Duct
SciF1Droid said on 7th May 2010, 12:28
Massa is certainly under some pressure, but it’s early yet in the season.
What does concern me about him, is that Rob Smedley is frequently telling him how to drive the car… “brake later into the corner”, “get on the power earlier”… This time telling him not to “turn off” the blown wing until the very end of the straight.
But, if it works and brings Massa back competitive with Alonso, then I guess that is all that matters.
wasiF1 said on 7th May 2010, 15:12
I don’t think the decision to move Kubica will be decided in one race so it’s early days for that kind of thing to happen.But it’s true Massa needs to bring out his claws to make sure that the management don’t even think about replacing him.
mirko_710 said on 7th May 2010, 11:53
GP2 dallara: Sam Bird 1m28.511
F1 dallara: Senna 1:27.752
GeeMac said on 7th May 2010, 12:12
I remember Bruno Senna saying that Dallara expected the “F1 Dallara” to be 2 seconds a lap faster than the GP2 car at the begining of the season…something just isn’t happening at the end of the pit lane. I’m confident they will be able to turn it around though.
Jay M said on 7th May 2010, 11:53
I am kinda disappointed at lotus. They talked about have a more organic engine cover shape for this race, but I can hardly tell it’s new. Still looks like a soap box.
Wouldn’t mind if you could make an article on all of the updates of the cars which includes picture comparisons :D !
JUGNU said on 7th May 2010, 11:54
Keith
Is it only me or there was some problem with Liveblog.
I tried it on both Google chrome and Internet Explorer but there was no liveblog box and only comments section was there.
jochenrindt said on 7th May 2010, 11:57
does anyone know what Button ran over in the pits?
jenson mania said on 7th May 2010, 12:07
Even I am curious…Does not look like it belonged to hiss car as well…Virgin maybe?
SciF1Droid said on 7th May 2010, 12:29
Yeah, I understood it as something from someone else’s car rather than his own, causing McLaren to check his floor was not damaged.