Mercedes put its revamped W08 through its paces with success in the first free practice session for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
Lewis Hamilton, runnin on Pirelli's medium compound, edged out team mate Valtteri Bottas by 0.029s, leaving Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel just under one second behind.
Vettel's running in FP1 was limited by a mechanical issue at the rear of his SF70H, but the Scuderia resolved the problem and sent the German back out without any further delay.
Max Verstappen led Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and sixth place.
Kevin Magnussen headed Haas' duo in P7 as both the Dane and Grosjean spent the morning running consistently in the top-ten.
But K-Mag's session came to a premature halt in the closing stages of the session with an apparent gear-box issue.
Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz closed out the top ten, over two seconds adrift from the front-running Mercedes tandem.
It was a busy morning of running at the Circuit de Catalunya except for McLaren's Fernando Alonso whose Honda power unit expired after just three corners!
The Spaniard left the circuit dejected to return to his hotel but will be back this afternoon for FP2.
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:21.521s | 28 | |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:21.550s | + 0.029s | 30 |
3 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:22.456s | + 0.935s | 24 |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:22.600s | + 1.079s | 23 |
5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:22.706s | + 1.185s | 22 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:23.084s | + 1.563s | 17 |
7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:23.670s | + 2.149s | 22 |
8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:23.758s | + 2.237s | 23 |
9 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:23.993s | + 2.472s | 24 |
10 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:24.004s | + 2.483s | 21 |
11 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:24.188s | + 2.667s | 23 |
12 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:24.324s | + 2.803s | 22 |
13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:24.400s | + 2.879s | 24 |
14 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:24.618s | + 3.097s | 34 |
15 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:24.642s | + 3.121s | 18 |
16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:24.966s | + 3.445s | 23 |
17 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber | 1:25.182s | + 3.661s | 24 |
18 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:25.919s | + 4.398s | 34 |
19 | Sergey Sirotkin | Renault | 1:26.293s | + 4.772s | 10 |
20 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1 |
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GALLERY: All the action from Barcelona on Friday
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