Lando Norris holds easy edge over Max Verstappen as all eyes turn to new F1 rule change

Lando Norris set the pace in opening practice for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix as F1's new front wings made their debuts to comply with a major regulation change.

The FIA has implemented a new technical regulation from this weekend designed to clamp down on front-wing flexing following complaints made by teams last year against their rivals.

Allowed time, and also not to waste budget for the teams by forcing them into making changes to the wings too soon, the new wings were rolled out at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya for first practice.

McLaren was surprisingly absent from the FIA document detailing significant changes made to the cars that appears a couple of hours before FP1, with the championship leaders seemingly certain of its current design.

It certainly had zero effect on Lando Norris, fresh from his confidence-boosting Monaco Grand Prix victory five days previously, as the Briton comfortably held the advantage over his rivals.

Norris concluded an incident-free session with a leading lap of 1:13.718s, finishing 0.367s clear of Max Verstappen in his Red Bull, followed closely Lewis Hamilton for Ferrari. The top 13 cars were split by just under 1.1s.

Norris the dominant force

Under clear blue skies, and air and track temperatures soaring to 30 and 49 degrees centigrade respectively, the conditions were ideal.

From the outset, it was Norris who set the pace with an early exploratory lap of 1:16.095s, albeit just under five seconds shy of his pole lap from last year, and on the hard tyres, which proved to be the compound of choice for the majority of the drivers early in the session.

Norris improved further to a 1:15.259s to edge Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso at the 15-minute marker by 0.221s before George Russell in his Mercedes propelled himself to the top of the timesheet on the medium rubber with a 1:14.571s.

At that stage, approaching the half-hour mark, the soft tyres began to make an appearance, leading to Stake's Nico Hulkenberg moving up to a second, a tenth behind Russell, although such a lofty position was short lived as the field overhauled the German.

It was Leclerc who dislodged Russell by 0.513s with a time of 1:14.238s before Verstappen then held sway by 0.171s. only for Norris to then dip below 74 seconds for a lap with a 1:13.718s, which was never headed for the remainder of the session.

Behind fourth-placed Leclerc, championship leader Oscar Piastri surprisingly found himself considerably adrift of team-mate Norris by 0.576s.

The Australian was followed by Racing Bulls duo Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in sixth and eighth, either side of Oliver Bearman in his Haas, whose team-mate for the session, Ryo Hirakawa, was 17th, 1.580s adrift.

The Japanese driver, who had replaced Esteban Ocon, endured an trip across the gravel early in the session to blot his copybook but with no damage done.

Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda was ninth, 0.925s behind Norris, and almost six-tenths down on team-mate Verstappen, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10, finishing ahead of Russell, whose leading lap was set on the mediums.

Victor Martins, in at Williams in FP1 for Alex Albon, was 19th, 1.804s off the pace, ahead of Alpine's Franco Colapinto, who has now effectively finished slowest in the last four practice outings.

There is a caveat in that Colapinto was 19th in Monaco FP1 a week ago but only because Aston Martin's Lance Stroll managed four laps due to an early incident in which the Canadian was hit by Leclerc.