Winners and losers from Barcelona GP F1 practice

Formula 1 is back to a ‘normal' track at Barcelona, albeit with an unusual entry list on Friday as seven teams gave rookies some mileage, and there are plenty of form fluctuations compared to the Monaco picture a week ago.

Here's our round-up of who was flying and who was floundering in practice.

Loser: Red Bull

"Horrendous" was the word Max Verstappen used to describe the behaviour of his Red Bull in FP2. That might have been more to do with the hard tyres, but he was sliding around out there.

"We are lacking everywhere," he said later on.

This track doesn't suit Red Bull and it is a bit more exposed at Barcelona than it was at the lower-speed circuits of Montreal and Monaco.

Verstappen was nine tenths of a second off the pace and his team-mate Isack Hadjar 1.2s off in second practice. 

Right now, Red Bull is at risk of battling its junior team Racing Bulls in Spain - but there's time left to claw some pace back. - Samarth Kanal

Winner: George Russell

George Russell got the strong start he needed this weekend, as even though Mercedes faces a renewed McLaren threat at the Barcelona circuit it is Russell leading its charge so far.

Quickest in FP1, and just 0.009s shy in FP2, Russell was half a second clear of championship-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli over one lap and seemed to have the edge on the long runs too.

It should be noted that Antonelli missed FP1 so that Fred Vesti could complete one of Mercedes' mandatory young driver sessions instead, so was on the back foot in FP2.

This means there is clear headroom to improve, so expect the gap to come down - but Russell's not yet scratching his head the same way has in recent weekends. - Scott Mitchell-Malm

Loser: Alpine

Alpine scored a podium finish before its cars even turned a wheel here, thanks to its successful appeal against Pierre Gasly's penalties in Monaco last Sunday. But its joy quickly faded once the track running started.

Managing director Steve Nielsen described it as "reality punches you straight in the face" as on Friday the Alpine looked like a car that will barely make it into Q2 if this form continues.

Neither driver is happy as the car is unpredictable, and while Alpine's made an unfortunate habit of starting weekends slowly before improving, it has a lot of work to do here given it is more than half a second adrift of the midfield-leading Racing Bulls.

"I hope it's the same pattern, but we're just starting from a little bit further back this time," said Nielsen. - SMM

Winner: Paul Aron

Whatever fuel load Paul Aron was running in FP1, ending up only 0.958 seconds off the pace in your very first hour driving the Audi R26 is an impressive feat. 

Aron took part in five practice sessions last year with Sauber and Alpine, so he has decent F1 experience, but he simply looked comfortable in his first 2026 session.

"He has proved that he's a capable driver," Audi F1 CEO and team boss Mattia Binotto said of Aron's FP1.

"He's a fast driver. He never tested that car on track. Immediately fast since the very first lap, the very first run.

"So, well deserved from him. Happy that somehow he could show what he's capable of, because at the end he's a great driver". 

Aron will get another chance to prove his worth next time out with another FP1 outing at the Red Bull Ring. - Josh Suttill

Loser: Luke Browning

Reserve driver Luke Browning has done countless laps behind the wheel of the 2026 Williams in the virtual world, but he was robbed of a chance to drive it in the real world at Barcelona as the team investigated an electrical issue all session. 

The silver lining for Browning is that he'll only have to wait two weeks before he's taking part in FP1 at the Red Bull Ring, and he has a TPC run at Austin to enjoy before then, too. - JS

Winner: McLaren

Top in FP2 with Lando Norris and two-tenths off pacesetter George Russell in FP1 with Oscar Piastri, McLaren looks set for a decent weekend in Spain.

Its brake problems across practice didn't bode well, but as Norris said, "the fact that the car still seems to be able to put in good lap times, even without feeling amazing, it's a good sign".

There's a worry that both Mercedes, Charles Leclerc and Verstappen look quicker in long run pace, but long run pace is never an exact science in practice, and Norris's apparent optimism reflects a team expecting to be in the hunt tomorrow with a few small tweaks and fixes. - Jack Benyon

Winner: Racing Bulls

On this ‘all-round' track, Racing Bulls proved that its Canada upgrade package was indeed effective. 

Liam Lawson was seventh and team-mate Arvid Lindblad ninth in FP1, with Lawson later saying the car is "responding very, very well".

The Racing Bulls looks hooked up throughout the track but it's not clear how tyre deg will affect the team - and that will be the defining factor on Sunday. 

Lawson did have that gremlin (possibly a gearbox issue) that stopped him from turning laps in FP2 but he did get going again late in the session. - SK

Loser: Williams

The Williams drivers were struggling on Friday. 

Carlos Sainz called it "very tricky" and said he expected the team to struggle in Spain - but not this much.

"It was quite shocking how far we were off the pace," he added, in yet another warning to Williams that it is not where it should be.

As for tyre degradation, he added that Williams is facing "two times more" degradation than anyone else given how it's sliding around on the hot Barcelona surface.

Browning's FP1 problems just added insult to injury. - SK

Winner: Leonardo Fornaroli

You have to feel for Leonardo Fornaroli. He won back-to-back Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships but was never even close to securing a seat on the F1 grid in 2026.

But he has been impressing McLaren during his extensive Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme in the first half of this year, with days at Barcelona, Silverstone and Austin. 

And he's now validated that by performing strongly under the pressure of his F1 practice debut. The headline fastest time was just over six tenths slower than Oscar Piastri, but as Fornaroli said "the pure laptime wasn't our goal.  The goal was to provide all the data that the team needed". 

And for him, his FP1 debut was an "amazing, incredible feeling. I was very emotional before the session". - JS

Loser: Aston Martin

"We knew this track would be a place where we would struggle in terms of performance and it's the case today," said Aston Martin's chief trackside officer Mike Krack.

If a Monaco point was a sky-high (relatively) moment, Barcelona looks like the nightmare return to land as in FP2 Fernando Alonso in the faster Aston Martin was over a second slower than the fastest Cadillac, that of Valtteri Bottas.

Individual times don't tell the tale of how much tyre degradation will impact performance, but on pure speed alone, Aston Martin will have to hope it can wrap its Pirellis in cotton wool for any chance of a better-than-expected Sunday.

The car does seem to be running reliably, at least. - JB

Winner: Valtteri Bottas

The most encouraging Friday of Valtteri Bottas's comeback.

Coming into the weekend, Bottas talked about being willing to sacrifice some practice running on Friday to try to solve the issues that have contributed to a one-sided intra-team Cadillac fight with Sergio Perez in 2026 so far.

And the early review of his weekend was very positive: "It's definitely the best I've felt with the car so far. It's now actually a lot more predictable.  

"I wish we would understand now what it actually is, but it seems like everything is just much more together with the set-up. We're hitting targets now. All the loads, they seem fine. You can see it on the laptime. So that's encouraging," Bottas said.

He was a respectable +2.799s off the pace in FP2, leading the line for Cadillac despite suffering from some issues with his electronic control unit that limited his running. - JS