Official F1 Journal Friday Round up - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

A dry and sunny weekend ahead for the 20 drivers battling it out in Barcelona this weekend, following tough and unpredictable weather conditions in Canada.
Carlos Sainz starts his home weekend strong as he becomes the fastest driver on track, not in softs in FP1, while Norris topped it overall and Hamilton FP2 .
Sergio Perez not having the most exciting of days but his mind is probably on the three place grid penalty he faces later this weekend for unsafe driving in Canada.
New updates will be seen on the Aston Martins as they look to improve their aerodynamics and optimise airflow interactions, new front wings on the Redbulls and rear wing for Ferrari.

©McLaren Media

Free Practice 1 
Top 10
1 NOR 1:14.228
2 VER +0.024
3 SAI +0.344
4 RUS +0.386
5 PER +0.464
6 PIA +0.639
7 HAM +0.683
8 OCO +0.858
9 ALO +0.994
10 ALB +1.189

©HAAS Media

Ollie Bearman was among the first few out on track in medium compound tyres as the Ferrari reserve replaced Nico Hulkenberg at Haas for FP1. Joining the young Brit in mediums, both Williams, Magnussen, Zhou and then Piastri, while the rest of the pack were in hards. Half way through the session, once some rubber was laid out on the track, the soft sets came into play and times were being chased. Lando Norris soon went fastest taking top spot off Verstappen who had previously cleared Sainz on mediums by three tenths to reclaim top spot, but before Max had time to retaliate a short break on track as a red flag was waved as marshall's had to clear the track of debris from Alonso's front wing.

As the session gets going again George Russell come's back out for the his last stint in Hard tyres ready to collect data more data for his team, while Tsunoda is just struggle to get laps in as he's nearly 10 laps behind everyone else.
 By the chequered flag Norris is still top however Sainz is in third only 0.344 behind as the fastest car not in softs.

Free Practice 2
Top 10
1 HAM 1.13.264
2 SAI +0.022
3 NOR +0.0.55
4 GAS +0.179
5 VER +0.24
6 LEC +0.333
7 PIA +0.358
8 RUS +0.458
9 OCO +0.502
10 BOT ​+0.66

©AMG Mercedes media

After track highs on 48 degrees celsius earlier, more softs were in play at the temperature had cooled to 43 degrees.
After a huge weekend out in canada, Mercedes have a strong first day out on track with Russell  experiencing the top spot in the early stages on FP2, and Hamilton eventually topping the whole session. However the surprising time was set by Gasly in his Alpine after previous troubles in FP1, but with less than 1 second separating Hamilton in first and Ricciardo in 16th qualifying looks to be an exciting session.

Haas who expected to struggle recorded decent times as Nico Hulkenberg now back in his car goes just behind his teammate Magnussen to sit 11th and 12th.
While Williams couldn't find their rhythm finishing the hour at the bottom of the table despite having the most amount of laps counted.

Bronwen Jones
​Writer @ F1 Journal