Mercedes have appeared to have the edge over Ferrari so far in Spain, and qualifying went that way too. Lewis Hamilton’s first run in Q3 was good enough for pole position, and no-one, not even himself could better it in the final flying laps. Vettel finished second, after dealing with engine gremlins for most of the weekend so far, whilst Bottas and Räikkönen settled for the second row of the grid.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso finally had something to smile about as he got the McLaren car into the top ten for the first time this season, and ended up with the seventh fastest time overall. Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne was out in Q1, however, as was Daniil Kvyat who complained that there was plenty that needed fixing on his car.

Sainz got into Q2, as did Grosjean but the Haas driver endured a couple of spins as he struggled to feel comfortable on the Barcelona track. Stroll didn’t manage to get into the top ten which was a shame, particularly compared with Massa who grabbed himself ninth on the grid for tomorrow.

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Teams showed off their updates to the cars in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix today, as well as refreshed paintwork that more visibly displays the drivers names and numbers. Fans were only able to look at Fernando Alonso’s number for three short corners before the McLaren started issuing smoke and Alonso pulled it off track. His afternoon session was marginally better, 21 laps but he was last and complaining the engine was even slower.

In other news, Sebastian Vettel had a suspected gearbox issue in FP1, whilst Kevin Magnussen also stopped after running through the gravel. Sergey Sirotkin was in the car for Renault but a water leak curtailed his running to just 10 laps. Mercedes were fastest with Hamilton ahead of Bottas.

In FP2, the wind picked up and caused plenty of wobbly moments out on track, with Vettel and Verstappen going through the gravel. Carlos Sainz caused a red flag by going over the kerbs and shedding some Toro Rosso carbon fibre, but the action soon got going again. Ferrari closed the gap to the front but it was still Mercedes ahead and still Hamilton fastest overall.

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