Mercedes pair a second clear in Spanish GP FP1

Mercedes set the pace in the first free practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix but attention was on Fernando Alonso after another Honda problem.

Just 10 minutes into the session, Alonso left the garage for the first time but only reached Turn 2 when the rear tires locked up and pitched the McLaren into a spin. With smoke coming from the rear of the car, Alonso climbed out and inspected a pool of oil underneath the MCL32, with the full contents of the oil tank being emptied as a recovery crane lifted the car over the barrier.

Honda confirmed an oil leak was being investigated, with the power unit being changed in order to allow the Spaniard to take part in FP2. The Japanese manufacturer has introduced some small performance updates this weekend, with the sister car of Stoffel Vandoorne running more reliably to complete 24 laps and set the 13th-fastest time.

At the front of the field, a heavily revised Mercedes started the weekend impressively as Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time with a 1:21.521. The Briton was just 0.029s clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas, as all of the runners set their best laps on medium tires. At a race where more significant upgrades are introduced by most teams, the Mercedes features a heavily revised front end, with a new nose and bargeboards the most obvious visual change.

Ferrari finished the session third and fourth with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, respectively, but will have some concern over the 0.935s gap to Hamilton even at this early stage of the race weekend. The team also suffered a reliability scare early on Friday morning, with Vettel losing drive as he exited the final corner and coasting to a halt at the pit exit. With Vettel parking the car sensibly, Ferrari mechanics were able to push it back into the garage and rectify the problem, getting him back out on track without losing too much time.

Having also introduced an updated car, Red Bull will have taken some encouragement from Max Verstappen ending the session just 0.1s slower than Vettel. Verstappen and teammate Daniel Ricciardo were fifth and sixth as the team evaluated new parts designed to close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari after an underwhelming start to the season.

The two-by-two nature of the standings continued with the Haas drivers in seventh and eighth places, with Kevin Magnussen seventh ahead of Romain Grosjean. Despite encouraging final positions, Magnussen's session ended early as he locked up at Turn 4 and ran through the gravel, attempting to rejoin along the grass around the outside of the circuit before eventually stopping by the barrier.

It is likely Magnussen was told not to try and return to the track as he is running an updated floor on Friday, with only one version of the upgrade available. Romain Grosjean will receive the new floor on Saturday but there are no spares available due to manufacturing time, with the decision to give it to Magnussen in practice made by flipping a coin on Thursday morning.

Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10, but for the second race weekend running Renault suffered problems with Sergey Sirotkin's car. The Russian had been scheduled to appear in FP1 at his home grand prix but failed to complete a timed lap before stopping with a hydraulics issue. On this occasion, a water leak ended Sirotkin's running after 10 laps, with the team working to fix it ahead of Jolyon Palmer's return in FP2.