BARCELONA (Reuters) -Red Bull’s Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen set the pace in both practice sessions for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday, with home hero Fernando Alonso delighting the crowd with the second fastest lap.
The Dutch driver was 0.768 seconds quicker than Mexican team mate and closest rival Sergio Perez in the first session and then 0.170 faster than Aston Martin’s Alonso in the late afternoon.
Alonso’s 32nd and last win was at the same circuit a decade ago with Ferrari and his form at the age of 41 — with five podiums in six races including second in Monaco last weekend — has fired up the fans.
Verstappen’s fastest lap around Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya was a one minute 13.907 second effort on soft tyres in practice two, with Alonso clocking 1:14.077.
The circuit has been shortened slightly, with the final chicane no longer used, and returned to a layout last used in 2006.
Verstappen, who took his first F1 win at the circuit in 2016 and also won last year, leads closest rival Perez by 39 points after winning four of six races. Red Bull have won all six.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, fresh from third place in Monaco last Sunday, was best of the rest in practice one while Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg was third in the second session with Perez fourth and Ocon fifth.
Ferrari introduced a new look upgraded car and Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ended the day sixth and seventh.
Mercedes’ George Russell, who had been trying out prototype Pirelli tyres for much of the first session, was eighth after 10th in practice one.
The top teams were all running with sensors and fluorescent ‘flow-vis’ paint in the first session as they sought aerodynamic data.
Several drivers also complained about the bumpy approach to the final corner.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge and Ken Ferris)
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