Montmeló (Barcelona), (EFE).- The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the championship, was the fastest this Friday, ahead of Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), in the free practice day for the Grand Prix from Spain, the seventh in the Formula One World Championship, which is held at the Montmeló circuit (Barcelona); where the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) scored the fourth time and the other Spanish, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), the seventh.
In the best of the 32 laps that he gave in the second free practice -in which everyone set the best times of the day- Verstappen covered the 4,675 meters of the Barcelona track in one minute, thirteen seconds and 907 thousandths, only 170 less than double Asturian world champion -third in the championship, 51 points behind the Dutchman-, who did three less laps and who, like him, completed a good attempt with the soft compound tyre.
That, before everyone did race simulation; during the last twenty minutes of a session threatened by rain -in which it only dripped for very brief moments- but which developed dry; and in which the German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) signed, surprisingly, the third time, 270 thousandths of ‘Mad Max’.
‘Checo’, second in the World Championship, 39 points behind his Dutch teammate, finished with the fourth half, a training session in which everyone achieved their best times on the soft compound and which ended without incident at 22 degrees Celsius and with 32 on the asphalt. In which the brave driver from Jalisco repeated 28 times the layout of the track in which he finished second last year; and he stayed, in his fastest lap, 312 thousandths behind his colleague.
Sainz, sixth in the contest and who did 31 laps, was 36 hundredths of a second behind his first partner in F1 (in 2015 and at Toro Rosso, current Alpha Tauri). The talented driver from Madrid registered seventh in the time table, 28 thousandths behind his teammate, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc, who set the sixth time of the day.