George Russell Tops First Practice at Madring in Spanish Grand Prix

George Russell set the early standard at Formula 1’s newest playground, topping first practice at the brand‑new Madring as the Spanish Grand Prix weekend opened with a rush of traffic, falling lap times and a flash of radio fury.

The circuit barely had time to breathe. Within 100 seconds of the green light, 20 of the 22 cars were already pounding around the fresh asphalt, drivers feeling their way across unfamiliar kerbs and grip levels. Only Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto held back, joining the fray a little later.

Those first flying laps were cautious. Most of the field hovered in the 1m42s to 1m45s range, treating Madring with a touch of suspicion. Then the big hitters arrived. Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris immediately punched into the 1m39s, slicing seconds off what had looked like a gentle opening.

The track gripped up, and the times tumbled. Within eight minutes Hamilton had hacked the benchmark down to a 1m36.066s and simply kept going, lap after lap. He looked completely at ease, chiselling the reference down to 1m35.563s and then 1m34.803s. Charles Leclerc briefly interrupted the flow, edging ahead by 0.120s, but Hamilton snatched the top spot straight back with a 1m34.620s on the medium tyre.

For the first half of the session, that was the story: almost everyone on mediums, only Gabriel Bortoleto persevering with hards, and Hamilton’s Ferrari in control.

Then the softs came out.

You would expect the timing screens to light up immediately. They didn’t. Kimi Antonelli and Russell each had two early goes on the red-walled tyre and both fell short of Hamilton’s medium-tyre marker – Antonelli by 0.063s, Russell by 0.109s. The grip was there, but the laps weren’t quite stitched together.

Russell changed that on his third attempt. He hooked up a 1m34.145s to finally knock Hamilton off the top, then went again and trimmed it to a 1m34.077s. That stood as the session’s best and gave Mercedes the honour of topping the first ever official F1 running at Madring.

Antonelli backed it up. The youngster clocked a 1m34.363s to lock in a Mercedes 1–2 and underline the car’s early comfort around the new layout.

Ferrari, though, left time on the table. Both Leclerc and Hamilton ran wide at the long Turn 17, the Monegasque driver only just improving his personal best while Hamilton never managed to better his earlier medium-tyre effort. He finished fourth, the only driver in the top group not to set his quickest lap on softs – and one of only two overall, alongside Yuki Tsunoda, whose session ended early with a power steering problem on his Racing Bulls with 25 minutes still on the clock.

Leclerc slotted into third behind the two Mercedes, 0.459s off Russell, with Verstappen fifth for Red Bull and Norris sixth for McLaren. Behind them, Arvid Lindblad produced one of the standout showings of the hour, dragging his Racing Bulls clear of the midfield to take seventh ahead of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.

Hulkenberg led the chasing pack in ninth for Audi, just behind Liam Lawson’s Red Bull in 10th. Bortoleto, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Colapinto all clustered together in the 1m35.5s to 1m35.9s range, underlining how quickly the midfield compressed once the softs came into play.

Further back, the home crowd finally had something to cheer. Fernando Alonso, wrestling with Aston Martin’s current limitations, ended up 15th. On recent form, that counted as encouragement. He finished ahead of one Haas, both Williams, both Cadillacs and team-mate Lance Stroll, who could do no better than 19th.

The calm of a new circuit didn’t last. The main flashpoint arrived at La Monumental.

Lindblad, on a flying lap, suddenly came across a slow-moving Mercedes and Ferrari – Antonelli and Hamilton – parked on the racing line through the fast section. The rookie exploded over team radio, venting his anger at what he saw as a repeat offence and branding their positioning “very dangerous” in such a high-speed corner.

Hamilton’s name kept coming up. He was later involved in more impeding flashpoints, this time at the expense of Leclerc and Hulkenberg, while Carlos Sainz also complained about how the seven-time world champion allowed him through at La Monumental. For a driver who had looked so sharp on outright pace early on, the session ended with more questions about traffic management than about speed.

Behind Alonso, Oliver Bearman, Sainz, Tsunoda, Stroll, Alex Albon and the Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas filled out the order. Perez and Bottas propped up the timesheets, both more than four seconds off Russell’s benchmark and clearly with work to do on a track that punished any hesitation.

So Madring’s first taste of Formula 1 goes into the books with Mercedes on top, Ferrari quick but scruffy, Red Bull lurking, and tempers already flaring through one of the new circuit’s fastest corners.

If this is only Friday morning, what happens when they start turning the engine up for real?