Valtteri Bottas surged to the head of the pack for Mercedes in the opening Formula 1 practice session ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix as Robert Kubica made his official race weekend comeback with Williams.
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“Since getting pole in Australia for the first race, we’ve not had another good qualifying until today”, said…
After the early safety vehicle for a multi-car crash caused by Haas driver Romain Grosjean in Turn Three, Hamilton bolted at the re-start and had a 1.4-second lead at the end of the first racing lap.
Vettel, chasing a fourth straight pole, survived the day without incident, but his Ferrari teammate Raikkonen was hit by a power problem as the Italian team again struggled to deliver a day without difficulties.
“We can improve, I know there’s a little bit more in the auto and a little bit more in me if I get everything together”. Bottas was soon going fastest before Hamilton topped the times after half an hour. He is coming off his first victory of the year two weeks ago and has finished in the top 4 in all four F1 races this year.
But they won’t be the only ones. The top four were separated by only 0.132 seconds at the end of the session – which promises a close race on Sunday at the Circuit de Catalunya. Honourable mention for Verstappen for his drive with a damaged car.What happens next?
Miami and Formula 1 are working to bring an race to the city in 2019 and a track layout has even been released. “Usually we’re able to find some performance overnight so we’ll try to do the same for tomorrow”.
Vettel has secured the last three pole positions as the Ferrari established itself as the fastest auto in the early stages of the new season.
He won at this track in 2017, though, and with Mercedes locking out on the front row, Hamilton can hope for some assistance in keeping Vettel at bay. “We’ve been very competitive and we’ve had a chance to fight for the win during most of the races so far”, said Vettel, who lost out to Hamilton in Spain past year after a titanic duel with the Briton.
“I don’t get why great golfers design golf courses but I don’t think any of the top racing drivers have ever designed a race track”, he said. “I do believe it might be much more fun”, he included.
However, the four-time world champion was immediately put on the back foot by Hamilton, Ricciardo and Verstappen in Q3, and he could not respond. The pair collided and took each other out in Baku. Bottas topped F1 while Hamilton was ahead in FP2 and marginally ahead of his team-mate in third and final practice this morning.
“If this weekend, we happen to get on top of the issues we have with the auto and start to be more consistent, then I will be a lot happier because I know then I can punch either at my weight or a little bit above”.
Hamilton said: “The auto and myself, I felt that synergy that I hadn’t been feeling all year”.
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“Definitely we are not in the position we wanted or expected”, Fernando Alonso admitted on Thursday.
