Leclerc fastest, 3 new drivers on track – Spanish GP

Formula 1  returned to Spain amidst all the drama and excitement. 

🏁 CLASSIFICATION (60/60 MINS) 🏁

Our first session of the weekend is done!#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/u1PFphtLQ1

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 20, 2022

And the teams got a load of upgrades with this at Barcelona.
And just like the upgrades played their part, so did the crowd.
The Spanish fans were ecstatic to greet their local heroes, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz.
Alonso’s last race win in Formula 1 came 9 years back in the Spanish Grand Prix. Today he was on a roll in FP1 finishing 5th fastest. His compatriot Carlos Sainz finished in P2. Charles Leclerc once again was at the top of the standings at the end of the session. A sight that fans are getting used to this season. While max Verstappen managed to sit in P3.

3 New Drivers 

There were also some substitutions made during the session.
We didn’t see the regular sight of Sergio Perez driving the Redbull, rather we go to see young Redbull driver Juri Vips, who had a decent session and ended at the bottom of the time sheet.

F2 ➡️ @F1 @HitechGP ➡️ @redbullracing

It’s been a busy Friday for Juri Vips 😅#SpanishGP #RoadToF1 pic.twitter.com/lGrEZ83Auc

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) May 20, 2022

Another driver who made an F1 appearance was Nick De Vries, who is a formula e champion joined Nicholas Latifi in the Williams for this session . What was impressive was that Nick managed to set a better time that Latifi, who has been in the car for far longer.

We also saw the return of Robert Kubica, who stepped in for Zhou Guanyu in the Alfa Romeo 

Who surprisingly managed to finish ahead of his teammate Valteri Bottas. 

Overall the session was a quiet one with not many incidents as the teams managed to get a good number of laps. The teams cycled through the various tyre compounds to assess their degradation.

So stay tuned to Fp2 for more action .