Spanish Grand Prix practice report: George Russell sets pace in first practice – BBC Sport
BBC Homepage | Skip to content | Accessibility Help | Your account
Home | News | Sport | Earth | Reel | Worklife | Travel | Culture | Future | Music | TV | Weather | Sounds
Pacesetter Russell says Madrid ‘has less margin than Monaco’
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: George Russell trails team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 66 points in the drivers’ championship
By Andrew Benson, F1 Correspondent in Madrid
Published 11 minutes ago
George Russell says Formula 1’s new circuit in Madrid "has less margin than Monaco" as the sport races there for the first time at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver set the pace in first practice at the Madring—a street-circuit style track built around an exhibition centre near Madrid’s airport. Russell was 0.286 seconds faster than team-mate Kimi Antonelli in second place.
"In Monaco, the walls are closer, but because you’re going far slower, if you make a mistake, you can recover it sometimes," he said. "Here, there’s a lot of really fast corners, but the barrier is kind of like coming back onto the track."
A few drivers brushed the wall during incident-free practice sessions, including Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
Russell singled out Turns Five, Seven, and 17, where Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went off into the run-off area.
"You’ve got three corners where you’re turning and braking," he said, "and if you lock up, the wall is right in front of you—very reminiscent of Turn 15 in Baku."
There’s also a section of high-speed swerves similar to the Jeddah street track in Saudi Arabia.
Ferrari set the pace on medium tyres in the first part of Friday’s opening session but couldn’t match Mercedes’ pace on soft compound tyres. Leclerc finished third fastest—0.459 seconds off Russell and ahead of Hamilton—with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fifth and McLaren’s Lando Norris sixth.
Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad, Mclaren’s Oscar Piastri, Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg, and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson completed the top 10.
