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Leclerc quickest in Spain, Alonso unhappy

Staff WritersAP
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fastest in the first two practice sessions at the Spanish grand prix.
Camera IconFerrari's Charles Leclerc was fastest in the first two practice sessions at the Spanish grand prix. Credit: AP

Formula One leader Charles Leclerc of Ferrari has topped both practices at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday while Mercedes showed signs of improvement.

Leclerc topped the time charts in both hour-long sessions. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were next in their Mercedes, which have struggled to keep up with Ferrari and Red Bull this season. They were within 0.2 seconds of Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz clocked the fourth best time in his Ferrari, followed by defending champion Max Verstappen for Red Bull.

Hamilton is not used to being an outside contender in Barcelona, where he was won six times and five years in a row. But he was encouraged by the car's apparent improvements.

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Hamilton said he was "super happy with the progress" and that his engineers had stabilised his Mercedes.

"We are not the quickest yet but we are on our way. It is the first time I have driven down the straight without bouncing," Hamilton said. "I am really grateful for those upgrades, we just need to fine-tune them. We can get it in even better shape tomorrow so we can tackle the guys up ahead."

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The best result this season for Hamilton, a 103-time race winner, is third place at the season opener in Bahrain. He is sixth in the standings with 36 points. Leclerc leads with 104.

The opening practice featured the F1 weekend debuts of two drivers in testing roles. Juri Vips filled in for Red Bull's Sergio Perez, while Nyck de Vries drove Alex Albon's Williams. Vips finished at the bottom of the table, and Vries was two spots above.

Veteran Robert Kubica also got a turn for Alfa Romeo in place of Zhou Guanyu.

Race officials expect more than 110,000 fans to turn out for each of the event's three days after two years of racing without the public due to the pandemic.

Spanish fans are eager to see Sainz and Fernando Alonso, the last Spaniard to win the Spanish GP back in 2013.

The latter courted punishment from the FIA when he accused race stewards at the last GP, in Miami, of incompetence, and one of the race directors.

The veteran was infuriated at Miami after he was penalised late in the race while in contention to score points. Alonso claimed on Friday his Alpine team submitted evidence to have his penalty overturned, but the stewards had already made their decision and were done working for the day.

"We believe that it was very unfair and it was just incompetence from the stewards -- they were not very professional," Alonso said.

Alonso also criticised Niels Wittich, who has performed race director duties at the first five races this season after Australian Michael Masi was axed after the controversial end to last season in Abu Dhabi.

"You need to have some knowledge about racing before being a race director or trying to monitor a race," Alonso said. "And I don't think that knowledge is in place at the moment."

Qualifying is on Saturday following a third practice. The 66-lap race is on Sunday.

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