Initial tension in the Madring and Alonso is already touching the wall

After a long wait, the time has come. The F1 cars They started rolling this Friday in the first official session in the history of the new circuit of Madringlocated in Ifema and Valdebebaswhere this weekend the first Spanish GP on this track, the first time that F1 competes on Madrid since 1981. And he did it with George Russell (Mercedes) taking the lead in Free Practice 1 that began to warn everyone how easy it is to make a mistake that puts you against the wall.

For weeks now, the drivers and team managers have been warning that the Madrid track was very technically complicated and that, with the walls so close, there was a high probability of ending up against the barriers and causing a yellow flag. However, the FP1 It was just a warning: there were multiple failures, braking passes and it became clear that doing two perfect laps in a row, without failures, is very complicated.

There was initial tension due to these accumulated errors and the enormous difficulty in managing traffic in blind and fast curves. Just a taste of what may be to come. Of course, there were no accidents. Neither yellow nor red flags. But don’t be mistaken if you think that will be the tone of the weekend: it was a tense calm. The challenge for everyone is huge and at any moment a shock can occur that changes everything.

Alerted by the difficulty of this track, all the drivers tried to start from less to more on a still green circuit, which will gain grip as the sessions go by, and in which constant errors were seen in FP1.

George Russell (Mercedes), started leading against his teammate, the leader of the World Cup Kimi Antonelliwith an advantage of 0″286, however, it is still too early to draw conclusions, since their Ferrari rivals, other favorites on this track, were not able to show the potential they wanted.

The two red cars were unable to optimize their times with a good lap on soft rubber. Leclerc He was third at 0″459, without having been able to set his time in his first attempt with soft rubber when blocking tires at turn 17, and finally he was able to improve his time a little with a more worn soft tire. Hamilton made the same mistake and was 4th at half a second after having done his time with the medium tire. Thus, it is still early to draw conclusions since it is expected that Ferrari have plenty of margin after an FP1 in which hamilton He ended up reporting some power problem with his engine.

He finished in fifth place Verstappensix tenths, before Lindblad (7th with the Racing Bulls) and Norristhe best McLaren(8th at 1″071). Much more is expected from the orange cars due to the characteristics of this circuit and the step forward they demonstrated with their new aerodynamic package. Hungary and Zandvoort. But as always, those of Woking They usually start at the back and rear their head on Saturday.

Alonso starts in Q2 positions; Sainz, 17th

Fernando Alonso started the Spanish F1 GP in Madridg in 15th place, 2″3 from the lead. On this circuit, its chassis can perform very well, but it can also be affected by the lack of engine power Sling on the short straights or fast corners of this track.

For now, the Asturian started with a step forward compared to a monza in which its propeller Sling It weighed him down too much. Here he was able to start in 15th place, within the Q2 objective, in a session in which he already began to iron out the walls. Fernando He even lightly kissed one of the interior barriers, without damaging the car.

And from there, you will have to try to continue raising the bar in some key sessions so that Sling and Aston Martin Note that the weeks-old drivability problems with the new engine have been minimized or almost completely solved to allow Alonso to attack to the maximum, with confidence, with an engine that does exactly what Fernando asks with his driving.

For his part, the local pilot, Carlos Sainzstarted 17th with his Williams2″7 from the head with a car that will have a difficult time even getting past Q1 in qualifying. Williams will bring improvements to the next appointment Baku and there they should take a step forward. Grove’s car is very heavy and needs that evolution like a storm. With those weapons, Sainz will have a difficult time.