Mercedes’ George Russell was fastest in the first-ever Formula 1 session at the brand-new Madring track – first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. Twenty out of 22 cars took to the track within the first 100 seconds.

Lewis Hamilton initially set the pace, lowering the benchmark to 1m34.620s on mediums. But Russell’s soft-tyre lap of 1m34.077s put him on top, with Kimi Antonelli making it a Mercedes 1-2.

Max Verstappen was fifth ahead of Lando Norris and Arvid Lindblad. Fernando Alonso was 15th. Yuki Tsunoda missed most of the session with a power steering issue.

The main incident saw Lindblad complain over team radio about slow Mercedes and Ferrari cars in La Monumental. Hamilton was also involved in further impeding incidents with Charles Leclerc and Nico Hulkenberg.