Mercedes Take Both Madrid Practices. Everyone Else Takes Notes on the Walls.

George Russell topped a spotless opening hour, Kimi Antonelli a red-flagged second one by 0.113s from Charles Leclerc. In between, the Madring collected its first crash, a gearbox, a clutch, and a long list of drivers who ran out of road at Turn 17.

The grid spent a fortnight telling anyone who asked that F1's new Madrid circuit was the most dangerous thing on the calendar, and then opened it without laying a finger on the barriers. All twenty-two cars completed FP1, a result nobody had forecast for a 5.416km lap with twenty-two corners and concrete where the run-off usually is. Russell took it on softs with a 1:34.077, close to three tenths clear of Antonelli, with Leclerc third, Lewis Hamilton fourth on mediums and Max Verstappen fifth. The loudest complaint of the hour was traffic: on a lap this busy, finding clear air is most of the job.

FP2 was the session that bit. Antonelli went quickest at 1:33.662, with Leclerc +0.113s and Hamilton +0.149s behind him and Ferrari looking a good deal more comfortable than they did at Monza. Arvid Lindblad was fourth and improving when he lost the rear of the Racing Bulls at Turn 13 and went into the wall at speed — unhurt, but the red flag ended most people's evening before they could answer Antonelli. Russell was fifth at +0.337s, Verstappen sixth at +0.401s. Turn 17's exit caught out a steady procession of drivers all session; Hamilton reported no front end and came close to putting it in the barrier himself.

The casualty list is the part that will shape Saturday. Lando Norris managed two laps before McLaren pulled the car in for a full gearbox change — the “significant” problem the team had flagged earlier in the day and called its absolute priority — leaving the championship's fourth-placed driver with no representative long run and Oscar Piastri, seventh, as McLaren's only data point. Fernando Alonso sat out FP2 entirely with a clutch issue at the one race he most wanted to run. FP3 goes at half past twelve, qualifying at four, and a large number of people are about to attempt something at this circuit for the first time with the clock running.

The Paddock Post wire