Charles Leclerc was the fastest in both training sessions before the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, ahead of George Russell on another promising day for Mercedes.
Leclerc with soft tires set 1: 19.670, which was only 0.117 seconds faster than Russell’s best attempt and just 0.2 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, to restore the belief that the “silver arrow” is slowly overcoming problems since the beginning of the season. Carlos Sainz Junior completed the top 4 for Ferrari, but complained about the rapid wear of the tires in the heat in Catalonia.
The current champion Max Verstappen in Red Bull was in fifth place with 0.336 seconds behind Fernando Alonso with half a second slower time for Alpine and the second driver of the “bulls”, Sergio Perez, and Sebastian Vettel with the controversial Aston Martin was eighth.
