2013 Spanish GP: Fernando's homecoming sweetened in FP 1

Formula 1 is back and this time, it’s back in the continent it first began. The European season of the Formula 1 calendar traditionally starts with the Spanish Grand Prix held in Barcelona. Described by many as the first ‘proper’ race of the year, the Spanish GP sees upgrades and updates for every car to keep with the tougher and more challenging demands of Europe.

Practice 1 kicked off this afternoon and for the first part of the session, the track was wet which brought Mercedes, underdogs for this circuit, to the top of the table. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton showed what their car was made up of and that they’d remain competitive if the rain gods were on the happier side.

Nico Rosberg and Mercedes were dominating during the wet, first part of the session.

Come mid session, many of the ‘smaller’ teams began to overtake the Mercs as the track started drying up. The Toro Rossos of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo demonstrated some excellent pace and set many of the fastest laps of the day. Then came Williams, huge underpeformers this season, with Finnish driver, Valterri Bottas, on the wheel, the British outfit took to the top of the time sheets in no time at all! Bottas was getting everything right except for when the temperature started to go up more, which was when the Williams began to fade away.

Fernando Alonso was at home and many expected him to set the pace. Initially, this wasn’t the case but as the track started to dry up, the 2-time world champion showed his compatriots what they’ve been wanting to see for a long time. At the end of the session, the Spaniard was at the top of the time sheets followed by his team-mate, Felipe Massa. Massa was for far too long in the shadow of Alonso but before the Spaniard could set his flying lap, the Brazilian took all the right decisions and held the 1st place for a small amount of time.

Home race. Good pace. First place.

Barcelona was set to be the beginning of the performance boost for Mclaren Mercedes but they failed to lap too many times in this session and were mostly paying attention to setting up their car. We can expect them to try out throughout the 2nd practice session.

Lotus and Red Bull weren’t the Lotus and Red Bull of the previous races, they were trying out new upgrades, too and at the end of the session, were far behind where they had to be, considering their past performances.

This is still the 1st practice of a 3-day long event and many teams were still setting up and preparing their cars for the Spanish Grand Prix. Most of all, the teams were trying to decode the problem that has haunted them this season: Pirelli.

The Italian tyre-supplier have provided a new ‘prototype’ set of tyres for the teams to test out during practice sessions only and this was the reason many didn’t clock where they expected to. Come second session, the teams will be more prepared for the tyres and the weather and the upgrades they’ve readied for their cars.

In the second session, we’ll see the real performance of the cars in Spain. Red Bull and Lotus not performing? Give it some time.

Lap times:

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 1.25.252Felipe Massa (Ferrari) – 1.25.455

Jean-Eric Verge (STR Ferrari) – 1.25.667Romain Grosjean (Lotus Renault) – 1.26.042

Adrian Sutil (Force India) – 1.26.212Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1.26.374

Valterri Bottas (Williams) – 1.26.456Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus Renault) – 1.26.614

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) – 1.26.621Paul di Resta (Force India) – 1.26.755