Spanish GP: Ferrari 1-2 in Practice 1 as Mercedes sandbags

Vettel on the soft Pirellis
Vettel on the soft Pirellis

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen ran 1-2 for Ferrari in the opening practice for the Spanish GP in Barcelona Friday morning. However, whereas Ferrari put up the fast times on soft tires, Mercedes was sandbagging in 3rd (Rosberg) and 4th (Hamilton) on the harder medium tires.

Vettel's lap of 1m23.591s was the only one in the 1m23 sec. range. Raikkonen was not far behind, however, with a time of 1m24.089s.

Rosberg was 1/2-sec. back from Vettel but once they slap on the softer tires they will be in front of the Ferraris.

The Red Bulls were 5th and 6th with Daniel Ricciardo just slightly ahead of Max Verstappen who got his first taste of the Red Bull after being promoted up from Toro Rosso this week.

More to follow….

Results

Pos Driver Car/Engine Time Behind Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari/Ferrari 1m23.951s 0.000s 22
2 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari/Ferrari 1m24.089s 0.138s 18
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes/Mercedes 1m24.454s 0.503s 34
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes/Mercedes 1m24.611s 0.660s 33
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/TAG Heuer 1m25.416s 1.465s 25
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/TAG Heuer 1m25.585s 1.634s 29
7 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1m25.672s 1.721s 36
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m26.078s 2.127s 19
9 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m26.186s 2.235s 32
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m26.243s 2.292s 18
11 Kevin Magnussen Renault/Renault 1m26.576s 2.625s 30
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m26.583s 2.632s 21
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1m26.938s 2.987s 27
14 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m27.064s 3.113s 9
15 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 1m27.253s 3.302s 27
16 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m27.258s 3.307s 17
17 Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 1m27.283s 3.332s 18
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m27.392s 3.441s 24
19 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m27.610s 3.659s 19
20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor/Mercedes 1m28.084s 4.133s 29
21 Rio Haryanto Manor/Mercedes 1m29.052s 5.101s 34
22 Esteban Ocon Renault/Renault 6