Spain Friday: Crash Festival at the new Madring!

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That brings us to the end of training Friday in Madrid. Tomorrow, of course, we will be back for you with a new ticker, then FT3 (12:30) and the probably important qualifying (16:00) are on the agenda.

Have a nice evening, have a good weekend and see you then!

Read more Longrun shock in Madrid: Mercedes clearly ahead of all teams

The championship leader set the best time today and summarizes: “We had a good first day here, but there is still a lot of work ahead of us before the rest of the weekend. It will be difficult to manage the tires on Sunday, and overtaking will likely be a real challenge.”

“That makes our work on a single lap tomorrow morning all the more important. We will focus on that overnight, but we also want to ensure we have a good car for the race on Sunday,” says Antonelli.

Teammate George Russell adds: “We started well in the first practice and the car was strong from the beginning. For the second practice, we made some setup changes. However, I’m not sure if the car improved because of that.”

“So we might revert those changes overnight,” he announces.

While Lindblad only missed the final phase in FP2, Lando Norris was barely able to drive. Mark Temple from McLaren emphasizes: “Today was a big challenge for us, especially due to the gearbox problem that cost Lando a lot of driving time in FP2.”

“This is a severe setback on a new and technically demanding track like this, where every lap is crucial for data collection. The conditions are difficult for everyone with high temperatures and low grip.”

“Therefore, losing this driving time ahead of Saturday certainly puts us at a disadvantage,” says Temple, who also admits beyond that: “The car is not quite how we want it yet. But we have some concrete ideas regarding both the chassis and the driver that we want to try out.”

They want to make up for the lost time with Norris as best as possible in FP3 tomorrow.

“If you ignore the crash, it was an absolutely great day,” emphasizes Alan Permane. Although Arvid Lindblad had a crash in FP2, he was also a strong fourth at the same time.

“The car is fast. We had a decent car from the start, made some changes between the first and second practice, and significantly improved it,” says Permane.

That means a top 10 result is “definitely” possible tomorrow, he says aggressively. Lindblad himself also explains: “Overall, it was a good day. We are very fast.”

He just made one mistake.

Could overtaking become a problem on Sunday? At least some suspect that qualifying tomorrow could play a decisive role – for example Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur.

“It’s mega hard to overtake,” he warns and emphasizes: “That means the starting position on the track will be crucial. It also means we have to shift our focus a bit.”

“Of course, it’s better to have good race pace,” Vasseur says, “but qualifying position will be decisive,” he predicts.

Meaning: The focus is even more on qualifying than usual.

Pierre Wache reports after P6 and P10 today: “Regarding car setup, there is certainly still a lot to do, especially with mechanical grip. The handling is more demanding than expected.”

“And regarding energy use, it’s clear we still have a lot of work ahead,” he admits. Meaning: Red Bull is not running smoothly yet. “We already made quite a few changes between FP1 and FP2,” emphasizes Wache.

“And I think we will continue to try different approaches,” he says with regard to FP3 tomorrow.

In Italy, Pierre Gasly sensationally took pole. But he probably won’t be able to repeat that tomorrow. “It’s a completely different track, a completely different challenge,” emphasizes Steve Nielsen.

“And while Monza highlighted some of our strengths, some of our weaknesses become clear here,” he emphasizes and explains: “There is no magic dust that sprinkles itself on this track.”

Meaning: Normally, it should be a tougher weekend for Alpine.

The Formula 3 qualifying has just finished – surprisingly without another red flag. There was another crash here as well, but right at the end of the session, so no red flag was needed.

Sportingly, the first points win in the title duel went to Ugo Ugochukwu. He was fourth in qualifying for the first main race, even second in the second. Freddie Slater, on the other hand, only finished P17 and P8.

Looks like an exciting title fight tomorrow and Sunday.

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Sergio Perez says after the first training day in Madrid: “A really cool track, a really beautiful venue. I’m really excited to be here in Madrid. I’m sure this will be the best race in Europe.”

A bold thesis that Max Verstappen probably doesn’t agree with. “I’m not a fan of street circuits, and that will never change. I will always prefer to race on a track like Spa,” explains the Dutchman.

“I mean, what they have put together – how they have built it – I really like,” he says, “but I’m just not a fan of street circuits.”

George Russell suspects that all drivers held back today. “Undoubtedly, it’s a track with very high risk, and I think probably all drivers left themselves a little bit of room today,” says the Mercedes driver.

Meaning: If the drivers go to the limit tomorrow, times should get faster again. But that of course also increases the risk of accidents…

Toto Wolff revealed on Sky that tire degradation today was “incredible.” “After the first session, our strategy director said: six stops,” he reports.

Because degradation was a hefty eight tenths per lap. “We’ve never seen that before,” says Wolff. But in reality, it probably won’t be that dramatic.

According to Oscar Piastri, graining was also a problem. “It was a nightmare to keep the tires under control despite graining,” he reports, but also says: “Usually it gets better over the weekend.”

However, he fears that McLaren might struggle with this problem more than others.

Small side note: As expected, Alexander Albon received a warning because he re-entered the track incorrectly once in FP1 at turn 6. Also a small correction: Arvid Lindblad was only summoned here as a witness, not for his own offense.

The timesheet on Friday usually never tells the whole story. Still, expert Alexander Wurz believes McLaren will have a hard time this weekend.

“I don’t see McLaren as a contender for pole,” he says on ORF and explains: “On the onboard footage, you see that the car doesn’t try to build grip when the driver goes on the gas, but the rear breaks loose immediately.”

“That means it’s not a mechanically easy car. Maybe aerodynamically top on ‘normal’ tracks, but here it seems rather difficult for the McLaren drivers,” says Wurz.

Oscar Piastri only landed P7 in FP2, Lando Norris didn’t set a representative lap time due to his gearbox problem.

Arvid Lindblad’s crash in FP2 was just the tip of the iceberg. Counting the incidents in Formula 2 and Formula 3, there have been six red flags at Madring so far today.

And the end of the line might not be reached yet, as Formula 3 qualifying is still on the schedule…

Report

Result

Overall result Friday

In ten minutes, the second Formula 1 practice in Madrid will begin and we will shift the action back to our session ticker for now. So there is a short break here, after the end of the training it will continue here as usual with the voices on Friday.

And if you want to know how to watch Formula 1 live during the Spain weekend, you can find out here!

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