Formula 1

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fastest during Spanish Grand Prix practice in Barcelona on Friday, the sixth round of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship.

Sainz and Alex Albon (Williams) had a spat after Turn 1, which stewards will investigate after the session. Sebastian Vettel was the first to set a time on softs in his updated Aston Martin, which has been the talk of the paddock today, setting the bar at 1m20.703s. That was soon beaten by Verstappen on 1m20.006s. Teams ran medium tyres at the beginning of this session, with Verstappen leading the way on 1m20.932s, 0.046s ahead of Sainz and 0.063s quicker than Leclerc – the latter suffering a scruffy end to his lap. Russell was best of the rest for Mercedes, lapping 0.762s off the pace on 1m20.590s. He later had a big moment when he came across the second Red Bull, driven for the first time in FP1 by F2 racer Juri Vips. After early running on the hard tyres, Sainz set the bar on softs at 1m19.907s. That looked set to be toppled by Verstappen, who set the fastest first two sectors when he came across a huge amount of traffic towards the end of the lap. Leclerc was quickest in both FP1 and FP2, ahead of Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen across the two one-hour sessions.

Red Bull are neither down nor out after a challenging opening day in Spain, but Max Verstappen said they have plenty of work to do to fight Ferrari in ...

“The long run, I think I was able to get a read in it. Because it’s not a track where the tyre stays new, you basically have one lap to have a read on the balance and then after that you’re just getting up to speed, but you don’t have really the peak grip. “We clearly still have a bit of work to do over one lap but long runs – at least they look quite decent, so I’m happy with that, just to try and find the middle way.

Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix is Sunday; Mercedes improving, Red Bull takes shot at Aston Martin.

Mercedes has front wing and floor edge tweaks as it strives to cure the bouncing that has plagued its progress. It involved CAD checks and a detailed analysis of Aston Martin’s development processes, and the FIA concluded that no wrongdoing had been committed, approving the compliance of the new package. So yeah, starting to eke into a bit of the potential in our car.” “Hopefully it will be good ones and enough to be in front of Red Bull again,” said Leclerc on the updates. It means it is a circuit that can produce more reliable feedback and data on new components, particularly with three street-based circuits (Monaco, Baku, Montreal) next up on the schedule. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a known quantity, given its extensive use as a pre-season test venue, and has a layout that assesses most areas of a car.

The drivers and teams report back on all the action from the opening day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, for the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio de ...

As I said this morning, I think there’s still a lot of potential in our car right now, so the upgrades from other teams have to work in the first place to be able to better and that’s not always the case. Every driver does enough laps around here that we know the circuit like the back of our hands, so it was a good session to miss in that respect. “It was nothing too out of the ordinary, I think the pace seemed to be okay in both low-fuel and high-fuel. Still, the car I drove in Imola was probably the best car I drove in my career in terms of feeling and simplicity of driving. Only one session for me today, so there’s a big margin of improvement for tomorrow: I think I am still finding the limit of the car, as well as of myself, and I think that tonight we will be able to analyse all the data we collected today and come up with an even better set-up for tomorrow. I was pleased to see I could get on the pace quickly and that the feeling I had with the car was back to what I had in 2020. We'll be running in the simulator in Brackley tonight, trying to find a bit more time in the car but at least we have a good platform to base this on and hopefully we can find a little bit more to carry into tomorrow." The soft tyres have the most grip, but also have higher degradation compared to the Mediums and Hards, so we need to review the best choice for Sunday, which is expected to be the hottest day of the weekend. There’s a lot of things we need to improve tonight and then after FP3 tomorrow we can look to see what’s achievable for us in Qualifying. We’re not too far from the top 10 so we just need to go away, focus on ourselves and hopefully we’ll be in Q3 tomorrow.” There’s a lot of analysis to do this evening – but hopefully we’re in good shape for qualifying and the race." As for Ricciardo, he has the older spec parts on his car this weekend, and was waylaid in the garage for much of FP2. Coming out for his soft trye run quite late, he wasn’t able to find much pace and wound up a lowly P15. You learn a lot driving, as a junior driver travelling to races with the Team you get to hear the drivers’ feedback but to feel first hand how the car feels is useful for me but also useful for the work I do on the simulator.”

Fernando Alonso has questioned the professionalism and competence of the stewards in Formula 1 after being handed what he felt was an unfair penalty in the ...

"We saw a couple of things already [in 2022] that proves we still need to improve a lot," Alonso said. They were not very professional, I think, in Miami. "They were not very professional, I think, in Miami.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso made a blistering criticism of Formula 1's current stewarding standards, accusing those running the sport of ...

He was given a five-second penalty for a collision with Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly and another similar one for cutting the chicane in the closing laps. “We came there, we showed them all the data. “So, it was very bad. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton claimed in Miami that this focus on a ‘bling ban’ was “almost a step backwards” when the sport had “bigger fish to fry”. It’s already in the past but it is something that should not happen in F1 with professionals and the standards that Formula One has right now.” “I think Freitas has a lot more experience with the World Endurance Championship, and other categories at the top level, and I think that will improve things.”

Formula 1 heads back to Europe with the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix. Here's what you need to know about this weekend's F1 race.

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Dan Marcus analyzes this week's Formula 1 race in Spain where Max Verstappen will look to continue his winning streak.

That could change due to the new regulations and could be the source of value in both DFS and betting contexts. As discussed in the introduction, I like Aston Martin as a team to potentially push two cars into the top 10 for the weekend, and it doesn't seem to be getting much respect. To get a bit contrary, consider mixing up the constructor. Heading into the Spanish Grand Prix, Aston Martin will look to insert itself into the conversation, as it has tallied points in each of the last two races. However, we've seen DRS trains spoil some of the racing in the midfield at both Imola and Miami, so there remains some lack of clarity as to how effective the overhaul in rules has been. Max Verstappen has suddenly won three of five races, finishing atop the podium each of the last two races.

Formula 1 returns to where the 2022 era began with several teams expected to arrive with major upgrades.

- George Russell has been the only driver to finish in the top five at each race this season. - Upgrades! Ferrari is expected to bring several upgrades, including a new floor to improve their porpoising issue. Hamilton has won at the track a total of six times, including the last five in a row. Max Verstappen (85) maintained his record of winning every race he has finished and in doing so has cut Charles Leclerc’s (104) lead to just 19 points. With an average viewership of 2.6 million the 2022 Miami GP became the highest-rated live F1 race in US television history (and second all-time behind a 2002 tape-delayed Monaco GP on ABC). With that benchmark, familiarity with the track, and its proximity to most teams' home operations in Europe, at least half the grid is expected to bring major updates this weekend.

Chants of 'Fernando' and 'Carlos' rang out at a bustling Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday, as an impressive crowd – keen for success from one of ...

On track, it looked like a good improvement, with Sebastian Vettel – one of only two drivers to achieve his ideal lap, to suggest he felt comfortable with the car – saying he thinks they are heading in the right direction. Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris were reasonably happy – though Norris was frustrated to have made a mistake by damaging the car and limiting his running to just six laps in FP2. Points should be the minimum expectation for both teams this weekend. Alpine and McLaren look set to battle it out for best of the rest despite enjoying contrasting fortunes in Friday practice. Championship leader Charles Leclerc said the high fuel performance “looks difficult” and they have a lot of work to do overnight. While fresh power units for both would have given them a few extra horses, it was the lack of bouncing that would have helped here. Mercedes brought a few upgrades to Spain, headlined by a revised floor – and the early signs are incredibly positive.

Barcelona plays host to the sixth round of the 2022 Formula 1 season. Here's how you can watch qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Viewers from selected countries can subscribe to F1 TV to stream qualifying on a device of their choice. - Denmark - TV3 / TV3 Sport / Viaplay Can’t find your country or region in the list?

Mercedes' Formula 1 technical director Mike Elliott believes it is “too early” to rule whether it is best to develop its current car concept despite taking ...

We’ve brought bits which have definitely settled the car down. “We’ve changed the car so much for this weekend that we need to work out how we get the best out of it. “The package we’ve brought here, we were definitely able to run the car in a position much more close to where we’d like to ideally run it.

Charles Leclerc edged out championship rival Max Verstappen to lead the way in final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, as Mercedes continued to show a ...

Fernando Alonso, driving in front of a huge home crowd, was 13th, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri. Lance Stroll was 0.5s behind team mate Vettel in 16th with Alex Albon the leading Williams in 17th, nearly a second clear of team mate Nicholas Latifi. Lando Norris, who was running the full upgrade after his McLaren team completed repairs to his floor damaged on a kerb on Friday, was seventh, with Kevin Magniussen the leading Haas in eighth. Home favourite Carlos Sainz was fifth, ahead of Sergio Perez, with the top six running two sets of soft tyres and separated by under half a second on what was an unseasonably hot day in Barcelona.

After a sold out race in the Miami Grand Prix on May 8, Formula 1 is back racing on international racetracks. The race will be held Circuit de Barcelona- ...

Seven-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton has fallen behind teammate George Russel by 23 points. While Leclerc is in the lead, Verstappen will not let go of his 2021 F1 World Champion title easily. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has been used for pre-season testing and junior categories.

Live coverage of Saturday's Formula 1 qualifying session for the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Ferrari takes pole once again, with championship contenders riddled through the first three rows.

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