Bottas tops the opening session in Spain - FP1 summary and report

F1 News

10 May 2019 at 11:30
Last update 10 May 2019 at 11:31
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  • Matt Gretton
  • Editor-in-Chief

Valtteri Bottas topped the first session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend despite finishing the session early with a possible oil leak. Both Ferrari cars split the two Silver Arrows, with Sebastian Vettel finishing ahead of Charles Leclerc. 

The Ferraris looked strong early in the session, but their rivals brought out the soft tyres and soon closed the gap. 

The session finished with a red flag as Lance Stroll ran into the barriers. Racing Point introduced a number of upgrades, and they'll be hoping none will be ruined with that crash. 

How it happened 

Early in the session, Bottas struggled to find his feet. He often ran wide in his Mercedes, and on one occasion he slipped across into the gravel. He also had a near miss with Max Verstappen. Meanwhile, Hamilton was very quiet early on and was actually in P20 with 30 minutes of the session remaining.

Vettel put in a storming lap on soft tyres just before the half-way point. That particular lap moved him ahead of his teammate by half-a-second and ahead of the closest Mercedes by over a second.

But it wasn't long before Mercedes got their act together. Straight away on the soft tyre, Bottas moved to the top of the timesheets. Hamilton, who made a mistake on his lap, moved into fourth.

Bottas' session ended early. A possible oil leak forced the Mercedes pit crew to put the car on the jacks and the floor to be taken off. 

What about the rest?

Both Haas cars looked strong. Before the big boys came out of the garage, Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen sat at the top of the timesheets. Grosjean had the upgrade installed on his car, while Magnussen recorded data on the old set up to give the team some sort of comparison.

Red Bull was quiet during the session, with Max Verstappen sitting outside of the top 10 for the majority. Pierre Gasly was down in P17. Verstappen's session ended early after running laps. His RB15 started to leak oil while he was sitting in the garage. 

Renault had a steamy session with their new engine. Apart from when Ricciardo visited the top 3 early in the session, they sat in the centre of the field for the majority of the session and finished in P10 and P11.