Mercedes Leads Early at Madring as Hamilton Sets the Tone
The Madring’s first official hour of Formula 1 running passed without a single red flag, and that in itself felt like a small victory. No crunching carbon, no stranded cars. Just 20 drivers learning the limits of a brand-new, high‑load Spanish venue that already looks ready to bite.
On the stopwatch, it was Mercedes who struck first. George Russell topped the opening practice session with a 1:34.145 on the soft tyres, 0.286 seconds ahead of championship leader and team‑mate Kimi Antonelli.
Behind them, the established heavyweights lined up: Charles Leclerc third, Lewis Hamilton fourth in the Ferrari pair, and Max Verstappen fifth for Red Bull.
Hamilton sets the pace, then the tone
Before Russell’s late soft-tyre push, it was Hamilton who had set the benchmark. The seven-time champion, now a Ferrari driver and third in the title race, punched in a 1:36.066 on the C3 mediums to take an early P1 as the field found its feet on the smooth Madring surface.
Leclerc briefly held top spot with a 1:38.504, only to be shuffled down as Antonelli and Verstappen improved. Hamilton then reasserted himself, his Ferrari looking planted through the daunting, banked La Monumental section.
The Monza fallout between the Ferrari pair never really left the paddock this week, but Hamilton moved to cool the narrative. He revealed the two had sat down “face to face” to discuss their first-lap clash in Italy, where he was punted into the gravel at Turn 1 before recovering to sixth. Leclerc, still sore from a huge crash at Monza and a point-less Sunday, has publicly accepted his role and vowed not to repeat it.
On track in Madrid, the truce held. When Leclerc tripped over a slow Ferrari ahead of him on a quick lap, he quickly realised who it was. No fireworks, no radio rage. Just a calm: “I don’t think Lewis knew I was coming.”
Hamilton, though, did have one heart-in-mouth moment. He brushed perilously close to the wall, a reminder that while FP1 is a data-gathering exercise, the Madring will punish even small misjudgements.
Russell vs Antonelli: a title fight warming up
If Monza belonged to Antonelli – a sensational victory from 19th on the grid – FP1 in Madrid hinted that Russell has no intention of letting this championship drift away. The Briton, 66 points behind his young team-mate, looked sharp from the opening laps and then delivered when it mattered on the softs.
His 1:34.145 put him clear at the top, while Antonelli’s best left him 0.286 seconds adrift. The Italian did blot his copybook with a lock-up at Turn 13, but carried on without damage and later climbed to second behind Hamilton earlier in the session, 0.345 seconds off the Ferrari at that stage.
The dynamic between the Mercedes pair remains one of the season’s most intriguing storylines. Russell was gracious in defeat at Monza, praising Antonelli after finishing second there, but the question lingers: can he really overturn that 66-point gap over the remaining rounds? Performances like this opening salvo in Madrid suggest he still believes he can.
Verstappen, Lawson and a reshuffled Red Bull camp
Red Bull arrive in Spain with a slightly makeshift feel. Isack Hadjar, still recovering from a fractured wrist sustained over the summer break, is again sidelined. Liam Lawson continues to deputise in the senior Red Bull seat alongside Verstappen, while Yuki Tsunoda once more steps in at Racing Bulls in Lawson’s usual place.
Lawson looked comfortable early on, going purple in the middle sector on one of his first proper efforts on the soft C4s. The final sector, though, got away from him; he stayed fourth, 0.919 seconds off Hamilton’s best medium-tyre time at that point. Even so, it was a solid statement from a driver still fighting for a permanent home on the grid.
Verstappen, the four-time world champion, slotted in ahead of his stand-in team-mate and finished the session fifth. The Dutchman was close enough to the front to suggest there’s plenty more to come once Red Bull lean on the set-up and fuel loads start to drop.
Hulkenberg fumes, Piastri puzzled
Not everyone enjoyed a smooth first look at the Madring. Nico Hulkenberg, ninth on the timesheets in his Audi, found Hamilton blocking his final attempt on the softs. The German did not hold back over the radio, snapping: “I mean, that’s nasty,” to his pit wall after losing the lap.
Oscar Piastri’s session ended with a different kind of frustration. Sitting sixth with around 14 minutes remaining, the McLaren driver suddenly reported something loose in his cockpit.
“I have something hanging in the cockpit around my feet. It’s banging my feet,” he radioed in. McLaren wasted no time: straight back to the pits, session done, and the mechanics diving into the car to find the culprit.
Yuki Tsunoda’s FP1 also ended early. The Racing Bulls driver aborted his first push lap on softs, then radioed an issue and was called back to the garage. He climbed out and his session was over as the team opted for a closer inspection.
Rookie lessons and a tight midfield
Arvid Lindblad continued his steep learning curve at Racing Bulls. The British rookie, running the medium compound, ended up 12th and found himself in traffic at one of the faster sections. He reported two cars running wide in a quick corner – they turned out to be none other than Hamilton and Antonelli, two drivers pushing hard at opposite ends of their careers.
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who narrowly missed out on points at Monza, chose a more conservative path to start the weekend, heading out on the hard compound while most of the field favoured the C3 mediums. Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman and home favourite Carlos Sainz all joined the early runners on mediums, Ocon noting encouraging grip levels over team radio to Haas.
Nico Hulkenberg later found more time for Audi, climbing to seventh with a 1:35.533 on the softs, underlining how tight the midfield remains on a circuit that demands both commitment and precision.
A new beast in Spain
The Madring’s debut as Spanish Grand Prix host has thrown everyone into the dark. Pirelli has brought the C2 (hard), C3 (medium) and C4 (soft) compounds, but with no historical data, every lap is a live experiment.
The circuit ranks among the top five on the calendar for tyre energy, with lateral loads comparable to Barcelona and Silverstone. Then there’s La Monumental: a 550‑metre, 24% banked corner that delivers the highest vertical tyre load of the season. It’s the sort of corner that can define a weekend – and maybe a championship – in a single heartbeat.
For now, the chequered flag has fallen on a clean, instructive first practice. Mercedes have set the early pace, Ferrari have steadied their internal storm, and Red Bull are lurking.
The question is no longer whether the Madring will test them. It’s who will dare to lean on it hardest when it really counts.
