Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes topped the times as practice at Formula 1’s 2024 Spanish Grand Prix got under way, while Red Bull and Max Verstappen appeared to be struggling.

But, digging beyond the headline times in FP2 reveals that Verstappen and co are far from panicking – with a major set-up change coming for his RB20 on Saturday that will bring both one-lap and long-run gains.

At the same time, Mercedes is quietly confident it can stay in the hunt more so than at other events this season where it has looked strong early in a weekend before fading.

Add in fast times over fliers and strong long-run pace from McLaren and Ferrari, and there is hope a theorised four-way fight for Barcelona supremacy will play out in the sessions that matter.

The story of the day

Given the major demand on tyres at Barcelona and the value of stability for early aerodynamic data at this familiar venue, FP1 was a rather sedate affair. George Russell, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz exchanged the top spot between them during the initial installation running on the harder compounds.

Verstappen then led the switch to softs before he was pipped by 0.024s courtesy of Lando Norris and the Briton’s FP1-topping 1m14.228s. After a brief red flag period as debris from Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin was collected from Campsa (Turn 9), the field switched to higher fuel running.

Norris broke out of the traps fastest in FP1, and was close to the summit in FP2 later in the afternoon

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

In FP2, Mercedes led from the off – with Russell heading the leading gaggle on the medium tyres. Sainz was the first of the frontrunners to switch to the softs and his time was only beaten by Hamilton’s session leading 1m13.264s – an effort set five minutes later.

Pierre Gasly slotted his Alpine into a shock fourth place on his FP2 qualifying simulation effort, before Hamilton tried on a second set of softs and failed to better his previous time. Sergio Perez completed his soft-tyre running much later than the rest as Red Bull made numerous set-up tweaks, with the Mexican driver ending up down in 13th and 0.577s off Verstappen’s fifth-place time.

The field then conducted the typical FP2 long-run data-gathering exercises regarding tyre life, which was notable only for Ferrari spending a long time altering Charles Leclerc’s set-up (the Monaco winner having called his car “horrendous” in FP1 when he was having to catch big oversteer snaps at Turn 2) and Hamilton and Norris dipping wheels into the gravel.

The critical corners at Turns 10 and 12 are where Hamilton gains back his previous 0.125s losses

These incidents took place late on at the exits of Turn 12 and Campsa respectively. Norris was so wide in his moment he feared he’d sustained floor damage on his McLaren.

What the data tells us

That the best times from Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren in FP2 were covered by 0.055s highlights how close things sit right now.

Mercedes also believes Russell could’ve matched Hamilton’s session leading time had he not been “held up by [Nico] Hulkenberg at Turn 10 and lost four and a half tenths”, per team boss Toto Wolff.

Mercedes believes Russell could have matched Hamilton’s FP2 time without traffic

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

FP2 overall times

What’s interesting about Hamilton’s FP2 best time is that – based on GPS trace data, plus additional information gleaned from the Barcelona paddock by Autosport that includes the understanding Mercedes likely has more to come on engine performance on Saturday – for all of the first sector and the first two corners of sector two, he’s down compared to the drivers he ends up heading.

The critical corners at Turns 10 and 12 are where Hamilton gains back his previous 0.125s losses. This suggests he aced the typical Barcelona challenge of not pushing too hard early in a lap and having tyre life left to spend come the final turns. Even without the low-speed chicane that was removed from the F1 layout for 2023 here, that challenge remains demanding and will be a key feature of qualifying tomorrow.

The GPS data also shows something unusual for a non-sprint Friday: Verstappen’s Red Bull heading his rivals on top speed down the straights.

Verstappen was quick through the speed traps although Red Bull ended up only fifth in FP2

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Typically, Red Bull runs with its engine mode turned down significantly in practice and while rival teams clocked that again on their post-FP2 studying of Verstappen’s time, the Dutchman’s slender rear wing compared to a more normal Barcelona downforce arrangement made the difference on the straights.

“The set-up has to go in that direction [higher downforce] for the race,” said Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko – referring to how a bigger rear wing will naturally aid tyre life and add one-lap stability on this track. “We didn’t use full power, so it is not so alarming. The long runs were ok.”

Red Bull’s best average on the soft long-runs is a massive 0.71s up on McLaren and a further 0.158s better than Mercedes

Soft long-run averages

Marko’s final point can be seen in the table above – where as ever, it’s important to remember the varying practice fuel loads caveat across the teams.

On this, it’s worth noting how on the best soft tyre averages and medium tyre averages from the relevant teams (see below), Alpine drops back from being amongst the frontrunners.

Alpine drops away from the leading pack when longer runs are factored into the mix

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Still, though, Red Bull’s best average on the soft long runs is a massive 0.71s up on McLaren and a further 0.158s better than Mercedes. Verstappen’s times on the red-walled compound do however tail off rather compared to Norris and Hamilton, which suggests he was suffering from more tyre degradation compared to the two Britons.

They were seemingly rewarded for starting their runs holding back more, with Norris in turn able to lap closer to the pace he started at on the softs compared to Hamilton.

A caveat to highlight here is how Verstappen and Norris were offset on testing two compounds – the latter going for a longer run on the mediums to a shorter second stint on the softs, with Norris doing the reverse. Hamilton completed just a single lengthy softs stint.

The averages show Ferrari to be further adrift on long-run pace at this stage – including on the medium tyre averages. Here, the lower lap count clocked by both McLaren and Ferrari is another positive sign for Red Bull ahead of what will be a two-stop race, where the hard is not expected to be a particularly good race tyre.

Also intriguing for Ferrari was just how much work it completed on Leclerc’s car ahead of his FP2-closing long-run, with the Scuderia apparently making considerable set-up changes around a ride height adjustment as the SF-24 was kept in the garage.

Medium long-run averages

Is there more to come from Ferrari and Leclerc tomorrow after set-up changes kept him in the garage in FP2?

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Lewis Hamilton has asked his Formula 1 fans not to spread «negativity» following a recent debate about possible favouritism towards his team-mate George Russell.

With Hamilton leaving for Ferrari at the end of 2024, his results compared to Russell have come under added scrutiny, particularly in the context of the younger Briton currently possessing a 9-2 qualifying head-to-head record.

Russell leads Hamilton by 14 points in the drivers’ standings and Russell took pole in Canada after Hamilton had topped FP3.

Hamilton also sparked a particular focus on the dynamics within Mercedes when he said «performance comes away from my car, for some reason» after he had qualified two places behind Russell in Monaco.

At that event, the focus centred on how Russell was running Mercedes’ new front wing, which has been credited with boosting the performance of the W15 significantly, and how Hamilton said he had «anticipated it would be difficult to outqualify George because he has the upgraded component.»

But Autosport understands that Hamilton had, however, been offered to run the same wing, but chose not to as he had deemed a qualifying crash too risky in the circumstances.

This was considering how Mercedes only had one example of the new wing at the time and breaking it would mean having to revert to an older specification and starting from the pitlane in Monaco, where overtaking is essentially impossible in modern F1 machines.

The Mercedes drivers’ contrasting fortunes in Canada then led to considerable speculation on social media about Mercedes possibly showing favouritism towards Russell.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton was specifically asked by reporters if there was something he wanted to say to his fans regarding this development.

«Yeah, I think they know that we’re…» he replied. «If you look at the years, we’ve always been a strong team. We’ve always worked really hard together.

«I think it’s easy to get emotional. But I think it’s always… I even commented in the last race, for example, just about my performance.

«I think we need support, not negativity. I wasn’t actually aware that George was experiencing negativity.

«George does nothing but his best every single weekend and he’s developing with the team. So, he can’t be faulted at all.

«Of course, there can always be things that are better within the team. And that comes through conversation, through communication.

«And that’s something that we’ve been consistently working on. But we’re all in the same boat. We’re all working hard together. We all want to finish on a high and I feel we owe that to our long-term relationship.»

When asked about the situation and Hamilton defending him, Russell, speaking alongside his team-mate in the Mercedes motorhome in the Barcelona paddock, said: «Personally I don’t look on Instagram or Twitter, to be honest.

«I still sort of control my own accounts, so what my team and all of the content that goes out is through me – the captions, everything is all of my messaging.

«But I think social media is a really double-edged sword, there’s so many funny things that you see on social media and it keeps you up to date with so much, but then on the flip side it’s not just myself, but everybody in the limelight, there seems to be negativity pointed towards them.

«And like Lewis said, you want to feel their support, and not giving out negativity to others.

«So, as I said, it’s not something I’ve seen or heard about it [from viewing comments online]. Of course, it’s never nice to hear this stuff, but that’s unfortunately the world we live in at the moment.

«And what any person in the public eye is facing.»

Apple’s Formula 1 film has been given a release date of 25 June 2025, as the production continues shooting footage at 2024 F1 events following delays caused by last year’s Hollywood actors’ strike.

The film, which remains untitled and is being directed by Joseph Kosinski following the success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, had been slated for release in June next year.

The film will be available to view in international markets on 25 June 2025, before its release in North America takes place two days later on 27 June 2025.

An F1 press release announcing the film’s release dates states: “The global theatrical release will also include IMAX theatres.

“The crystal-clear images, coupled with IMAX’s customised theatre geometry and powerful digital audio, create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.”

The film stars Brad Pitt as a former F1 driver who returns to action in the championship to race for the fictional APXGP team alongside a rookie racer played by Damson Idris.

cars being filmed for new F1 film APEX starring Brad Pitt

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Speaking at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Hamilton revealed how last year’s strike – enacted by SAG-AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) in response to a series of issues including movie studios using AI technology in place of real actors – had meant filming of key scenes at that event being scrapped.

“If there wasn’t a strike we would be filming one of the really cool scenes here this weekend,” Hamilton said in Vegas.

“But we’ll continue on filming next year so you’ll see them around more.

“We’ve already got great footage with the demo drivers, who have done a great job, as all the [F1] drivers got to see in Austin [2023].

“We’ll keep pushing along. It’s still going to be great, might cost a little bit more but I’m really confident in what Jerry is going to produce.”

Hamilton also explained how shooting had continued at certain 2023 F1 rounds during the strike with only “the stunt crew” involved, while emphasis was placed on gathering event setting and atmosphere footage at the same races.

Spanish actor Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt on the grid

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Work on the project has been continuing in recent weeks using the Formula 2 car Mercedes has modified to run in APXGP colours – including at the Silverstone track when it hosted the launch of the Conservative Party’s manifesto for the upcoming UK general election.

F1’s press release states that production of the film “will continue at this year’s British GP and at several other races and complete at the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP in December”.

It has been suggested that the other races where filming will be conducted over the rest of this season will be the Hungarian, Belgian, Mexican and Vegas events, with footage already collected at the Japanese round back in April.

There is also new interest in the film’s final budget, with reports surfacing that this has increased to over $300 million, which would make it amongst the most expensive ever made.

Part of this stemmed from the pause in filming caused by the SAG-AFTRA strike, as the footage captured at the 2023 F1 events featured the car designs, liveries and sponsor logos that no longer match with the respective 2024 updates.