Norris tops first practice at Spanish Grand Prix

Lando Norris led Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during the first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

As teams accept new front wings forced upon them by a rule change for this race, Norris, who won in Monaco five days ago, was 0. 367 seconds quicker than Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari’s third and fourth drivers, came in third and fourth.

In this first session, Norris was 0.576 seconds quicker than the Australian, who leads teammate Oscar Piastri by three points.

Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls was in sixth place, ahead of Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Yuki Tsunoda, and Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, who was a member of the Haas of Briton Oliver Bearman.

Early on, the Spaniard was one of the pacesetters, but as the session progressed, it became apparent that the veteran had a problem with the engine’s performance, based on radio transmissions between the Spaniard and his engineer.

Alonso, who had an engine failure at home last Sunday, retired in Monaco and finished his session five minutes early.

The FIA’s new front-wing flexibility test, which aims to reduce how many flexing wings can teams use to control aerodynamic performance, has been the main focus of the weekend thus far.

Ferrari and Red Bull hope that the stricter restrictions will help boost their chances of succeeding in the FIA’s race competition. According to McLaren, it will have essentially no impact on relative competitiveness.

Front-wing flexibility has been a key feature of modern teams’ efforts to increase speed on straights and maintain downforce in corners. The wing’s “backs off” on the straight to lessen drag before returning to its highest-density position for corners for maximum downforce-producing.

However, the phenomenon has actually helped in the current car generation by adjusting for both high- and low-speed cornering performance.

Low-speed understeer, a lack of front grip, and high-speed oversteer, a lack of front grip, have been a problem for the new generation cars introduced with new rules in 2022, which focus on underbody downforce produced by so-called Venturi tunnels.

Teams can lessen this apprehension in quick corners by reducing the front wings’ effectiveness at higher speeds without making the cars too difficult to drive at low speeds.

Although it is unknown whether the more stringent tests will have any impact, McLaren and Mercedes are widely regarded as pioneers of this particular approach.