Brendan Lines 15th Aug, 2020 08:25am

Valtteri Bottas set the pace in FP1 for the Sapnish Grand Prix, with Lewis just +0.039s behind in P2 for the morning session at Circuit de Catalunya.

Track temperatures were upward of 40°C in the searing Spanish heat, over double that when the teams visited Catalunya for winter testing six months ago.

Tyre management was high on Bottas’ FP1 program.

“It’s a nice feeling to be back on track here and feeling the improvements of the car since we were last here, back in pre-season testing. The car felt good out there, but obviously there’s some fine-tuning to do.” Bottas said after FP1.

“We did long runs on all of the tyre compounds today and I didn’t experience any blistering, so there will be lots of learnings for us to look into in order to really maximise tyre performance here,

“We’re looking strong but the main thing will be Sunday with these temperatures and whether we can keep these tyres in a good condition.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took P3 with a lap of 1:17.724s nearly a second off from Bottas’ pace, teammate Alex Albon spent the morning tuning mid-corner oversteer out of his car, finishing P8 +1.821s adrift of the leaders.

Ferrari were back on the pace with Charles Leclerc in P4, a change of chassis seemed to make a world of difference for Sebastian Vettel, the German snared P5 with a lap of 1:17.981, just +0.011s off Leclerc’s time.

Haas signalled it might be able to turnaround its early season slump with top ten finishes for drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finishing P6 and P9 respectively.

Sergio Perez slotted into P7 in his first session back in anger, sitting out the Silverstone rounds after a positive COVID-19 test, the Mexican lead the charge for Racing Point finishing ahead of teammate Lance Stroll in P10.

Carlos Sainz got accustomed to a new chassis tub in his McLaren taking P11 ahead of teammate Lando Norris in P13.

It was a low key day for Renault with Esteban Ocon in P12, Daniel Ricciardo tweaked his front-end aero settings on the Hard tyre to finish P18.

Alpha Tauri focused on long runs, Pierre Gasly finished P14 with Daniil Kyvat in P18.

The Alfa Romeo’s of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen finished P16 and P17 respectively, notably the only team to run the Soft tyre exclusively.

Williams reserve driver Roy Nissany made his free practice debut, after a nervous spin he managed P20 in George Russell’s car, just behind teammate Nicholas Latifi in P19.