The opening practice session for the 2015 Spanish Grand Prix was largely uneventful as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg improved lap after lap, only to be separated by 0.07s. Unfortunately for Ferrari, they were still almost a second behind the Silver Arrows despite major upgrades to their car.
Nico Rosberg topped the time sheets in FP1 with a laptime of 1:26.828, completing 28 laps, with teammate Lewis Hamilton completed 27 laps with a fastest time of 1:26.898. Both drivers seemed to have no problems or reliability issues throughout the session. Only minor developments have been spotted on the Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton saying to the press on Thursday “it’s about quality not quantity”. Rosberg is under investigation by the stewards for entering the pits late, and crossing the white pit lane line.
In stark contrast, Ferrari - who have brought a lot of new updates to Barcelona - were just under a second off the fastest laps of Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel posted a 1:27.806, completing 21 laps, and Kimi Raikkonen was just 0.026s behind the German, setting a 1:27.832 but only managing 16 laps in the 90 minute practice session. The session did present Ferrari with a couple of problems, as Kimi Raikkonen complained over team radio about the temperature of his seat, and Sebastian Vettel left the track at Turn 1 causing yellow flags 26 minutes into FP1. One reason for the lack of Ferrari pace could be due to the number of updates to the car, which will take a lot longer to set up as the team tries to understand how the updates have changed the behavior of the SF15-T. Just after FP1 finished, more Ferrari parts were being delivered so maybe we haven't seen the potential and full force of the package just yet.
Further down the field, Raffaele Marciello drove Marcus Ericsson's Sauber for the initial practice session, completing 15 laps, finishing just 0.490s slower than Felipe Nasr’s fastest lap time. 40 years after the first female driver scored points in Formula 1, Susie Wolff substituted for Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, and Jolyon Palmer replaced Pastor Maldonado for Lotus.
Daniel Ricciardo suffered reliability issues after completing only two untimed laps at the beginning of the session, although he managed to get out towards the end of the session with eight minutes left on the clock. The Australian completed 9 laps, setting a lap time of 1:29.075
McLaren are also running a new updated rear wing, which is proving problematic with Jenson Button saying that the car was very “oversteery” and “the balance is completely wrong on this new rear wing.”
- Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 26.828s 28 laps
- Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 26.898s 27 laps
- Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 27.806s 21 laps
- Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 27.832s 16 laps
- Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 28.132s 27 laps
- Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 28.529s 23 laps
- Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 28.785s 7 laps
- Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 28.831s 21 laps
- Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 29.075s 9 laps
- Felipe Nasr BRZ Sauber-Ferrari 1m 29.140s 14 laps
- Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 29.409s 20 laps
- Raffaele Marciello ITA Sauber-Ferrari 1m 29.630s 15 laps
- Jolyon Palmer GBR Lotus-Mercedes 1m 29.676s 21 laps
- Susie Wolff GBR Williams-Mercedes 1m 29.708s 22 laps
- Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 29.813s 22 laps
- Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 29.817s 22 laps
- Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 30.096s 19 laps
- Pastor Maldonado VEN Lotus-Mercedes 1m 30.110s 7 laps
- Will Stevens GBR Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 32.471s 22 laps
- Roberto Merhi ESP Manor Marussia-Ferrari 1m 32.647s 20 laps
