Spanish GP 2023
JUNE 2, 2023
Practice 1 Report - Red Bulls take top spots
© Red Bull
By Peter Habicht
Max Verstappen took fastest lap (1m14.606s) for Red Bull-Honda in the opening practice round at the newly reconfigured Circuit de Catalunya today, with teammate Sergio Perez (1m15.374s) in second followed by Esteban Ocon in the Alpine-Renault.
Teams ran a mix of mainly soft and medium tires in addition to a prototype hard compound tire from Pirelli for testing and eventual use later in the season. This year the Barcelona circuit has been reconfigured back to the track layout prior to 2007, with the removal of turns 14 and 15 for a faster sweeping final corner.
Several teams brought upgraded bodywork and ran aero testing to optimize runs, and a few experienced porpoising and bottoming out.
AlphaTauri-Honda’s Nyck de Vries ran in fourth, followed by Ocon teammate Pierre Gasly and local favorite, Fernando Alonso, who will be looking for his 33rd career win with Aston Martin-Mercedes on Sunday in 362 career starts.
Kevin Magnussen was seventh fastest in his Haas-Ferrari, followed by the Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and the Mercedes GP of George Russell.
The second practice session gets underway this afternoon at 5pm local time.