George Russell drew first blood at Formula 1’s newest arena, topping the times in opening practice at the Madring and leading a commanding Mercedes one-two to christen the Spanish Grand Prix’s fresh home.
The brand-new circuit barely had time to breathe. Within 100 seconds of FP1 going green, 20 of the 22 cars were already pounding around the unfamiliar ribbon of asphalt, with only Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto taking a more cautious approach before joining the fray.
Hamilton lights it up early
The first flying laps looked like reconnaissance, not attack. Most of the field toured in the 1m42s to 1m45s as drivers felt out the grip and the walls. Then the usual suspects snapped the session into life.
Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris immediately dropped into the 1m39s, laying down the first serious markers on a track still evolving corner by corner.
From there, the times fell fast.
Hamilton, in Ferrari red, found a groove before anyone else. Within eight minutes he was down to a 1m36.066s, and he kept chiselling away at his own benchmark: 1m35.563s, then 1m34.803s, each lap a statement that he had dialled in the Madring quicker than the rest.
Charles Leclerc briefly interrupted the story, edging his team-mate by 0.120s. Hamilton simply took the top spot straight back with a 1m34.620s, still on the medium tyres that would define his session.
Soft tyres, silver cars
The opening half-hour belonged to the medium compound. Every driver bar Gabriel Bortoleto ran their early programmes on the yellow-marked tyre, Bortoleto alone staying on the hard.
Then came the switch.
Softs emerged across the pitlane, and with them the expectation that Hamilton’s medium-tyre benchmark would finally fall. It did – but not straight away.
Kimi Antonelli and Russell each had two early attempts on the red-walled tyre and both came up short, Antonelli by 0.063s, Russell by 0.109s. Hamilton’s medium lap still stood as the reference.
The pressure finally told. On his third push on softs, Russell hooked up a 1m34.145s to dislodge Hamilton from the top. He wasn’t done. Next lap, he trimmed that to a 1m34.077s, a time that would remain untouched to the flag and put Mercedes at the head of the very first Madring timesheet.
Antonelli backed him up superbly. The Italian rookie produced a 1m34.363s, just 0.286s shy of Russell, to lock out a Mercedes one-two and underline the team’s early comfort around the new layout.
Behind them, Leclerc settled into third with a 1m34.536s on softs, while Hamilton’s best remained that 1m34.620s on mediums – making him, along with Yuki Tsunoda, one of only two drivers whose fastest lap did not come on the soft compound.
Errors at Turn 17 and Tsunoda’s trouble
The track bit back at Turn 17.
Both Leclerc and Hamilton ran wide there as they pushed into the final phase of the session. Leclerc still managed a marginal personal improvement; Hamilton did not find a better lap, his earlier medium effort standing as his peak.
Tsunoda’s day unravelled earlier. The Racing Bulls driver had shown decent pace but was parked in the garage with 25 minutes remaining after a power steering problem, his 1m36.939s on mediums leaving him 18th.
Verstappen, Norris and a feisty Lindblad
Behind the Mercedes–Ferrari battle, Verstappen quietly slotted into fifth. The Red Bull driver clocked a 1m34.703s on softs, 0.626s off Russell, with Norris close behind in sixth on a 1m34.947s.
Arvid Lindblad delivered one of the standout performances of the hour. The Racing Bulls rookie not only muscled his way into seventh with a 1m35.033s, he also effectively headed the midfield, finishing ahead of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren in eighth.
Hulkenberg led the chasing pack in ninth for Audi with a 1m35.529s, just 0.010s quicker than Red Bull’s Liam Lawson. Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon and Colapinto all clustered together in the mid-1m35s, separated by tenths rather than whole stories.
Pierre Gasly’s 1m36.244s left him 14th, while home favourite Fernando Alonso gave the Madring crowd something to cheer with 15th. Given Aston Martin’s recent form, that counted as a quietly encouraging start, the Spaniard edging Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, and the struggling Williams pair.
Lance Stroll trailed his team-mate in 19th, ahead only of Alex Albon and the two Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, who propped up the order more than four seconds off Russell’s benchmark.
“These same two guys, man!”
The most animated moment of FP1 did not involve the stopwatch.
On a flying lap through the fast La Monumental section, Lindblad came across slow-moving cars – Hamilton’s Ferrari and Antonelli’s Mercedes – and exploded over team radio.
“These same two guys, man! Like, I don’t know what they’re doing, they’re just stupid, right in the fast corner! It’s actually very dangerous, it’s been twice now.”
It wasn’t an isolated complaint. Hamilton later found himself in the spotlight again for separate impeding moments involving Leclerc and Hulkenberg, while Carlos Sainz voiced his own frustration at how the seven-time world champion chose to let him through at the same corner.
On a brand-new track, with sight lines still unfamiliar and racing lines evolving by the minute, traffic management already looks like a theme for the weekend – and perhaps a flashpoint when qualifying pressure kicks in.
For now, the record books show one clear fact: on Madring’s opening day in Formula 1, Russell and Mercedes drew the first line in the sand. The question is whether anyone can rub it out when it really counts.
