EL1 in Barcelona: Bottas dominates a choppy session

Very lively for several races, Valtteri Bottas rings the charge with Pirelli's Tendre compound, stopping the clock with a time of 1'18'148. The Finn is ahead of his teammate Mercedes Lewis Hamilton, leader of the Drivers' championship since Baku, by more than 8 tenths. Note that the Briton achieved his best mark on Medium tires.

Sebastian Vettel takes the 3rd time with the Super-Soft rubber. The four-time German world champion is ahead of the Red Bull de Max Verstappen and the second Ferrari by Kimi Räikkönen. Follow the McLaren MCL33 Fernando Alonso which is embarking on important developments this weekend, starting with a new triple-aperture nose.

Despite a shortened session following damage to his RB14 at the front, Ricciardo finished 7th in front Romain Grosjean whose Haas VF-18 received little development. McLaren places its two cars in the Top 10 with Stoffel Vandoorne's 9th fastest time. Pierre Gasly is invited into the first 10 aboard the best representative Toro Rosso.

Charles Leclerc rode on the good momentum of Baku by grabbing the 12th time, while his teammate Marcus Ericsson was 14th in an encouraging session for Sauber. After the revival of form observed in Azerbaijan, disappointment on the other hand for Force India and Williams and this despite the introduction of major changes for the two Mercedes customer teams.

Sergio Perez ranks 13th, three places ahead of his teammate Esteban Ocon. The FW41s, for their part, bring up the rear. For his first free session since the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Robert Kubica is 19th, while Lance stroll is dead last after planting his FW41 in the gravel.

On a track that the drivers know by heart but devoid of grip on this opening morning, many of them made mistakes during the first 90 minutes of driving of the Catalan weekend, including spins. queue for Vettel, Bottas, Ericsson, and Kubica.

Will the first trends observed in the hills of Montmeló be confirmed in Free Practice 2? First elements of response from 15:00 p.m. this afternoon.

The Mercedes pair lead the way in FP1 morning in Barcelona

As Kubica beats his teammate on his Grand Prix weekend return #F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/BsDVR0p12Q

— Formula 1 (@F1) 11th May 2018