Very good pace for Red Bull and McLaren, not as good as this morning for Ferrari.
Last weekend in Europe before the return to the American continent: we’re at the Montmeló circuit in Barcelona, the venue for the ninth round of the season. On the occasion of the Spanish Grand Prix, the FIA’s new directive on wing flexibility will come into effect — a regulation awaited by the top teams to help close the gap to McLaren, dominant in this early part of 2025.
The directive, however, doesn’t seem to have changed the plans of the Woking team, with Oscar Piastri setting the fastest time in the qualifying simulation, putting almost three tenths between himself and George Russell’s Mercedes in second. In third and fourth place, side by side, are Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, just a few thousandths behind the British driver.
For this round, Pirelli has chosen to bring the hardest compounds in the range: C1 (Hard), C2 (Medium), and C3 (Soft), confirming the same tyre combination used since the 2019 edition. In last season’s race, all drivers made two pit stops, mainly using medium and soft tyres.
Speaking to Sky Sport F1 during FP2, Mario Isola confirmed what we had already seen in 2024, stating that the Hard compound is about one second slower than the Medium, and therefore most drivers will likely choose to use the Soft and Medium tyres.
However, the use of the hardest compound cannot be ruled out entirely, as the Montmeló circuit has always been tough on tyres: in fact, the abrasive asphalt and high temperatures will promote the development of graining.
Race Pace Analysis FP2 Spain: Afternoon Times
In this second free practice session, all drivers chose to do a single flying lap, then spent about half the session on race pace simulation. The choice of tyre compounds was very varied, with Stroll and Colapinto the only ones to opt for Hard tyres.
Just as we saw in the 2024 edition, the battle seems to be between Max Verstappen and the two McLarens, with Ferrari unable to confirm the progress they showed this morning in FP1. In fact, during the race simulation phases, Leclerc was caught and passed by the reigning World Champion’s Red Bull.
McLaren differentiated the programs between the two drivers, with Lando Norris initially opting for Soft tyres, while Oscar Piastri went out on Medium tyres. In particular, the World Championship leader’s simulation was affected for a couple of laps by traffic from Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull.
On the other hand, Lando Norris’s long run on soft tyres was very consistent, always lapping between 1:19.9 and 1:20.2. After 12 laps, however, the British driver made a pit stop to align with his teammate’s tyre choice. On medium tyres, Norris completed only 4 laps but showed a pace unmatched by all the others.
Equally positive was Max Verstappen’s race simulation, who initially chose medium tyres, then made a pit stop after 9 laps to switch to softs. The reigning world champion was very fast in the early laps, but in the final laps of the stint on medium tyres his times increased by over half a second.
Ferrari disappointed in this afternoon session, failing to confirm the great speed shown in FP1. Indeed, while the race simulation this morning with Soft tyres had been very encouraging, the Maranello team struggled with the Medium tyres, with Leclerc even being overtaken by Max Verstappen.
The longest race simulation, however, was carried out by George Russell’s Mercedes, which completed a long run of 19 laps on Soft tyres, likely to explore the possibility of a one-stop strategy for Sunday’s race. The British driver struggled due to the high temperatures, and his lap times during this simulation were about one second slower than those of Verstappen and Norris.
PHOTO: McLaren F1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, F1, GPKingdom.
