Formula 1 got its first proper taste of Madrid's brand new Madring circuit on Friday, and it was exactly what you'd expect from Mercedes. George Russell topped the timing sheets in FP1 with a 1:34.077, putting his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli just two-tenths behind him. The Brackley outfit absolutely nailed the soft tyre strategy in the closing stages, and it showed. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc managed third for Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton fourth, though the Scuderia looked noticeably more comfortable on the medium compound early on.

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The track itself threw up some fascinating challenges right from the start. With 22 corners, tight barriers, and wild elevation changes including the absolutely mental La Monumental banked section at Turn 12, Madring immediately exposed where different cars struggled and shined. Ferrari seemed strong through the opening and middle sectors but couldn't quite get the soft tyre working cleanly. Hamilton's onboard footage showed just how rapid the circuit transitions are, jumping from flowing high-speed stuff to proper technical sequences. The heat didn't help matters either, with track temperature already sitting at 48 degrees Celsius.

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Red Bull and McLaren weren't quite playing ball on Friday. Max Verstappen finished fifth while Lando Norris was sixth and Oscar Piastri way down in eighth. Liam Lawson got stuck in tenth. Interestingly, Audi's pair of Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto both spent time in the top 10 and looked genuinely competitive, eventually settling for ninth and 11th. Bortoleto was the only driver in the early top 10 running the hard tyre, which shows how much everyone was still figuring things out.

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What made Friday even cleaner than expected was the complete absence of red flags during the F1 running. After some sketchy moments in the F2 session earlier where things got properly hairy, there was genuine concern about how F1 would cope with Madring's combination of walls and changes. But the drivers were smart about it, approaching cautiously through the opening 45 minutes before gradually finding their feet. By the end, Russell and Antonelli had cracked the code with that late soft tyre strategy, setting up what could be a properly entertaining rest of the weekend at this absolutely mental new Spanish venue.

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