F1 News: Norris & Verstappen 1-2 in opening practice in Barcelona

Lando Norris turned a lap of 1m14.228s in his #4 McLaren to top opening F1 practice for the 2024 Spanish GP at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

#1 Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was just 0.024s behind Norris in his Red Bull RB20 with neither driver showing their true hand yet.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was third quick in his #55 Ferrari, 0.344s behind Norris.

George Russell put his #63 Mercedes in 4th, 0.386s behind the McLaren.

Sergio Perez rounded out the top-5 in the #11 Red Bull, 0.464s behind Norris.

Despite running the updated Williams, Logan Sargeant was still 0.6s behind his teammate Alex Albon.

So, McLaren have topped the opening session courtesy of Lando Norris. They expected to go well here, but were cautious – noting that they didn’t know the form of the rest.

McLaren and Red Bull ran the soft Pirellis, while Sainz’s time was set on the medium compound.

Bar the brief red flag to collect some debris that fell off Alonso’s front wing, it was a relatively quiet session. There was a little bit of traffic grumbling and a few reliability concerns, but no major offs or spins. That will make the teams happy, while the fans are content to bask in the sunshine.

2024 Spanish GP Practice 1 Results