McLaren’s pace appeared not to be unduly hindered by the clampdown on flexi front wings as Lando Norris pipped Max Verstappen in first practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Five days on from claiming his maiden-ever elite-level Monaco GP to gain further impetus in his title quest, Norris was back at the top of the board at a hot Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with an exceptional soft tyre fastest lap of 1:13.718.
Norris led Red Bull’s Verstappen by 0.367s and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by 0.378s, the latter starting his Barcelona weekend in good spirits on single-lap performance.
The rest of the field was behind by over half a second – and included Norris’ championship-leading team-mate Oscar Piastri, fifth behind Charles Leclerc’s second Ferrari.
“The question of the day – has that Monaco win given Lando the confidence injection he requires to think he has found his mojo again and is now as good as ever?” mused Sky Sports F1’s 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg.
“It certainly looked that way out there, he was absolutely on fire.”
The session was the first since the much-awaited imposition of stricter load tests for front wings from this weekend, a step the FIA has taken in a bid to reduce the margin by which front wings are permitted to ‘flex’ on the track.
Most but not all of the teams employed new front wings in first practice under the new regulations – apart from McLaren, which had seemingly done so previously at a previous race with its Barcelona-conformant wing.
Mercedes were the other leading team who were still not running a new front wing, though they have modified the W16’s floor and rear wing in the quest for improved performance following two poor grands prix.
Their leading driver in 11th was George Russell but only on the slower medium tyres.
