The “European” season of the F1 world championship kicked off on Friday with Free Practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Whisperings around the paddock say that this will be the final Spanish Grand Prix and F1 will not come back in 2020. Nevertheless, there was practice sessions to power through and power through the teams did.

With the Circuit de Catalunya hosting the pre-season testing, it does not take teams long to get to grips with the track and teams usually get their new bits bolted on and head out for some lappage.

Free Practice 1

Early on in the session it seemed as though Ferrari had their issues behind them as the early pace was set by Charles Leclerc, but it was Mercedes with Valtteri Bottas who showed that their updates worked just that bit better. Bottas looked quick very early on and indications very early on were that Mercedes had quite a significant pace advantage over the rest of the field.

Bottas set the fastest time of the session with a 1:17.951. Just a touch under a tenth was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with a 1:18.066. This may have given Ferrari hope at the end of the session. They were soon to be proven very wrong come FP2.

Third fastest in the other Ferrari was Charles Leclerc with a session best time of 1:18.172, 0.221s off Bottas’ benchmark. Finishing 4th fastest was Lewis more than six-tenths off the pace. Hamilton struggled with grip throughout the session and reported that he could not get the tyres in the zone.

“It was quite windy on track today and it was a bit tricky with the grip levels on the three different tyres, but we got through our programme and now have lots of data to analyse tonight and then fine tune the car for tomorrow,” commented Hamilton.

With new aero parts on the Haas, Romain Grosjean ended the session 5th fastest and in doing so validating the work of the Haas engineers. Carlos Sainz split the Haas drivers by finishing 6th in the McLaren with a best time of 1:19.155, 1,204s off the pace. Kevin Magnussen, who was still running the older aero parts on his Haas, ended his session 7th fastest ahead of the Red Bull of Pierre Gasly 8th.

Daniil Kvyat finished 9th fastest a touch a head of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who rounded out the top 10.

Max Verstappen ran into some traffic on his flying lap run and his session was cut short after an oil leak on his Red Bull.

With a few seconds left in the session, Lance Stroll – who finished the session 13th fastest – brought out the Red Flags after he dipped a wheel on the gravel before Turn 9 which sent his RP19 over the gravel and into the barrier.

FP1 Provisional Classification

Bottas on top in Barcelona, but both Ferraris are stalking him ⏱️#F1 #SpanishGP 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/AuKolZDyed

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 10, 2019

Free Practice 2

Valtteri Bottas, in the break between FP1 and FP2 had some porridge and made it two from two finishing the second free practice session with a best time of 1:17.284.

His Mercedes team mate, Lewis Hamilton was just 0.049s off Bottas’ benchmark but still struggled with grip at times.

Leclerc finished ahead of Vettel in FP2 with session best lap time of 1:17.585, 0.301s off Bottas’ benchmark. This should be quite worrying for Ferrari. Being so far off the pace quite early on in the weekend does not point to a smooth weekend for the Scuderia.

Max Verstappen finished 5th fastest with a spec 2 Honda PU. Honda had chosen to change his PU after an oil leak curtailed his running in FP1.

Continuing on his good form from FP1 was Haas’ Romain Grosjean with a P6 finish with a session best time of 1:18.153 for the Frenchman. Team mate Magnussen was P9. The two Haas’ once again split, this time by Gasly in the other Red Bull.

Carlos Sainz had another good session finishing 9th fastest ahead of the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat in P10.

Mercedes clearly showing their superiority quite early on in the weekend and their expected to go even quicker come qualifying. Their long run pace was far superior to Ferrari and Red Bull and all indications from the long run pace points to another Mercedes 1-2 dominating weekend.

Ferrari seem to have the speed in the high speed Sector 1 and Sector 2. Where they are struggling is in the slow and technical Sector 3 where mechanical grip is important. Mercedes, over the years, have shown that they are exceptionally strong in this section and Ferrari were no match at any point in time. Clearly nothing has changed. The Ferrari seems to cook it’s tyres by the time it gets to the final sector and struggles for grip whereas the Mercedes manages to keep the tyres in the very tiny operating window which allows them to get the pace through the final sector.

We have seen come-backs in Formula 1. This has been a week of comebacks in sport but this might be one mountain Ferrari will be unable to get over.

FP2 CLASSIFICATION: After 35 laps apiece just 0:049 seconds separates Bottas and Hamilton#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/xs12hFWOV8

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 10, 2019