George Russell Tops Opening Practice at Madring

George Russell drew first blood at Formula 1’s newest arena, topping the opening practice session at the brand‑new Madring and leading a Mercedes one‑two in the first taste of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

The circuit barely had time to breathe before it filled. Within 100 seconds of the green light, 20 of the 22 cars were already pounding around the fresh asphalt, only Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto delaying their entrance. The early laps were cautious, drivers feeling out the bumps and the blind entries, times languishing in the 1m42s to 1m45s range.

Then the big hitters arrived.

Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris immediately dragged the benchmark into the 1m39s, and the tempo of the session changed. Lap after lap, the times fell. Hamilton, in Ferrari red, looked instantly at ease, punching in a 1m36.066s within eight minutes and then chiselling away at his own standard.

He kept going. A 1m35.563s. Then 1m34.803s. Each lap a statement that he was more comfortable than anyone on the new layout.

Charles Leclerc briefly broke that spell, edging ahead by 0.120s, only for Hamilton to snatch it straight back with a 1m34.620s. At that stage, and crucially on medium tyres, the seven‑time champion owned the reference time.

Soft tyres changed the picture.

Most of the field had spent the first half of FP1 on mediums, Gabriel Bortoleto alone persisting with hards. When the softs finally came out, the expectation was simple: someone would bury Hamilton’s medium‑tyre lap.

Not immediately. Kimi Antonelli and Russell both needed a couple of goes to get within range. Their first two attempts on softs still fell just short of Hamilton’s medium benchmark – Antonelli by 0.063s, Russell by 0.109s. It was a measure of how strong that Ferrari lap had been.

Russell kept pushing. His third flyer on softs finally cracked it, a 1m34.145s good enough to go fastest. He then found another sliver of time to end the session on 1m34.077s, the first man to truly stamp his authority on Madring.

Antonelli backed him up with a 1m34.363s, completing a Mercedes lockout at the top and underlining the team’s early comfort on the new track. Leclerc settled into third with a 1m34.536s, while Hamilton’s earlier effort left him fourth, the only driver in the top group whose best lap came on mediums rather than softs.

He shared that quirk with just one other man: Yuki Tsunoda. The Racing Bulls driver’s session ended prematurely with 25 minutes to go due to a power steering problem, freezing him in 18th with a best lap on mediums.

Behind the front quartet, Verstappen’s 1m34.703s put Red Bull fifth, 0.626s off Russell, with Norris in sixth on 1m34.947s. Arvid Lindblad produced one of the standout midfield displays, his 1m35.033s good enough for seventh and clear of Oscar Piastri in eighth.

Hulkenberg led the next pack in ninth with a 1m35.529s, narrowly ahead of Liam Lawson. Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon and Colapinto all slotted into the 1m35.5s–1m35.9s window, with Pierre Gasly just over two‑tenths further back.

Home favourite Fernando Alonso, wrestling with Aston Martin’s current limitations, could take some encouragement from 15th on 1m36.473s, ahead of Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz in the Williams, and the sidelined Tsunoda. Lance Stroll, Alex Albon and the two Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas completed the order, Bottas 4.741s off Russell’s pace.

For a first run on a new track, the main talking point wasn’t the timesheets. It was traffic.

The flashpoint came at La Monumental, where Lindblad, on a hot lap, suddenly found both Antonelli’s Mercedes and Hamilton’s Ferrari crawling in his path.

“These same two guys, man!” he snapped over the radio. “Like, I don’t know what they’re doing, they’re just stupid, right in the fast corner! It’s actually very dangerous, it’s been twice now.”

His frustration set the tone. Hamilton’s name surfaced again as Leclerc and Hulkenberg both felt impeded, and Carlos Sainz added his own complaint about how the Ferrari driver moved aside at La Monumental. On a narrow, unfamiliar circuit, the etiquette battle has clearly started early.

Hamilton himself had a couple of scruffy moments, running wide at Turn 17 along with Leclerc as both searched for the limit on a surface that offered grip in patches and dust in others. Leclerc only narrowly improved his personal best after his excursion; Hamilton never bettered that early, mighty lap on mediums.

For now, the headline belongs to Russell and Mercedes. On a day when the field rushed to learn every inch of Madring, they looked sharpest when it mattered.

If this is just the opening act, qualifying around La Monumental’s walls is going to be ruthless.