Verstappen gets the fastest time as Alonso impresses

Red Bull’s Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen set the pace in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday, with home hero Fernando Alonso delighting the crowd with the second fastest lap.The Dutch driver was top in both sessions, 0.768 seconds quicker than Mexican team mate and closest rival Sergio Perez in the first and then 0.170 faster than Aston Martin’s Alonso in the late afternoon."Overall I think we had a very good day, the car was in a good window,” said Verstappen. "Short run and long run everything looked quite good.”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."It’s been a lot more fun to drive,” said Verstappen. "F1 cars in general feel better at high speed so for me the last two corners are much better to drive.”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."It’s so close over one lap that I think a couple of tenths will put you in a completely different position in the classification, so we won’t read too much into the times,” said the Spaniard."The fans have been amazing and it’s great to see their support. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them tomorrow.”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, ended up eighth after being 10th in practice one, with seven times world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton 11th.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, although Red Bull appeared to have got on top of the problem. "It’s not too bad. This track has been resurfaced a few years ago and it’s still quite decent,” said Verstappen.Hamilton says more work needed after difficult dayLewis Hamilton endured a ‘difficult day’ and said more work was needed on his upgraded Mercedes after struggling to 11th place in yesterday’s practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.The seven-time champion said he felt that his revised car was ‘not terrible’ on long runs, but he added that he needed to extract more speed on single laps."It’s ok,” he said. "We’re fighting as hard as we can - it’s been a difficult day, in P1 and P2, working to get on top of the tyres and the ‘deg’ - and it so different from last week, of course,” he said."The long run pace was not terrible, but we need to work on extracting more on a single lap.”Asked how it felt, he replied: "The car feels like... the car.”He added the revised final sector of the track, at the Circuit de Catalunya, was a big improvement with the removal of the chicane. "The final corners are awesome now,” he said."Very fast. I much prefer it to the small chicane that was there, but I haven’t followed anyone there yet, but it’s going to be tough through there for the degradation."From today’s pace, it’s been a struggle for me to get into the top ten, but we plan some changes overnight. It’s so close between us all from fifth down to P10 and impressive to see all the improvements by everyone."Ocon and Alpine look so good and Aston Martin are up to one-tenth from Red Bull which is so impressive.”He added that possible wet weather "can always bring a helping hand” but promised to "work hard tonight to get on top of it.”Team-mate George Russell was eighth and said: "It’s been fun to drive the new version of the circuit... We’ve learned a huge amount and can dig into the data now."We are not Friday specialists, but we will do what we can, learn from it and move forward tomorrow.”Defending double world champion Max Verstappen topped the times in both sessions for Red Bull, outpacing Aston Martin’s two-time champion Fernando Alonso at the end of the day ahead of Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg.