Lando Norris backs up Monaco win by soaring to top spot in Spain first practice

Lando Norris followed up his victory in Monaco by soaring to top spot in first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Norris earned a morale-boosting second win of the campaign last Sunday to move to within three points of McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in the championship.

And the British driver headed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.367 seconds in the opening running at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya with Lewis Hamilton third for Ferrari.

Hamilton was 0.378 sec adrift of Norris while his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc took fourth spot. Piastri finished fifth.

McLaren’s rivals might have hoped that a clampdown on flexible front wings – which some believe has contributed to the British team’s rise – would slow them down.

However, the early evidence of the rule tweak appears to have done little to influence McLaren’s speed with Norris holding an early advantage. Although there could be some concern for Piastri who was more than half-a-second down on his team-mate.

Verstappen is the only driver outside of McLaren to win a race this season following victories in Japan and Imola to put him 25 points off the title pace.

The Dutch driver indicated here that he will not be able to challenge Norris and Piastri over the championship stretch, but he can at least take confidence from being second in the order after he missed 20 minutes of the one-hour session as Red Bull made tweaks to his rear suspension.

Hamilton will also be encouraged by his early showing after he finished a tenth-and-a-half clear of Leclerc.

Liam Lawson was seventh for Racing Bulls, one place ahead of British rookie Ollie Bearman. George Russell finished a distant 11th for Mercedes, one second behind Norris. Second practice takes place at 17:00 (16:00 BST).