Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari one-two in opening practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, albeit after using a quicker tyre than any other team.
Vettel topped the timing screens with a 1:23.951 set on the soft tyre, with teammate Kimi Raikkonen crossing 0.138s behind. Vettel's headline time was half a second quicker than championship leader Nico Rosberg and six tenths up on Lewis Hamilton, but neither Mercedes driver ventured onto the softest compound available this weekend, meaning we are yet to see an accurate comparison between the two. FP1 leader Vettel finished the session stopped at the end of the pit lane, but it appeared the Ferrari driver had simply missed the red light rather than suffered any issue.
After the team's driver swap last weekend there was increased attention on the Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers. Daniel Ricciardo finished as best of the rest behind Mercedes and Ferrari in fifth, with Max Verstappen within two tenths of his new teammate. Carlos Sainz finished eighth for Toro Rosso with Daniil Kvyat, back in the team he started his career with in 2014, five tenths behind in 12th. However, it is just one session and times from opening practice are rarely an accurate reflection of pace at this stage of the weekend.
Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa finished either side of Sainz, with Fernando Alonso rounding off the top ten, 2.3s off the lead. McLaren has a significant upgrade package this weekend including a new foor, front wing and rear wing and Alonso has targeted a spot in Q3 tomorrow afternoon. However, teammate Jenson Button, who finished the session down in 19th,complained the rear of his car was moving a lot under turn-in, suggesting McLaren is still searching for the ideal balance with its upgrades.
Kevin Magnussen finished 11th for Renault with Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez finishing behind Kvyat. Felipe Nasr ended the session 15th for Sauber, one place ahead of Romain Grosjean, who told Haas during the session his car was "a disaster at low speed". This is the first weekend Haas returns to a circuit with actual data following its laps over the winter. Haas teammate Esteban Gutierrez had several lock ups late in the session on his way to finishing 16th, ahead of Marcus Ericsson and Button.
Pascal Wehrlein won the battle of the Manors at the foot of the timing screens, beating teammate Rio Haryanto by a full second, while Renault test driver Esteban Ocon did not post a lap time after his session came to a premature end after the team discovered an issue early on.