George Russell set the pace in first practice for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix as runaway championship leader Kimi Antonelli sat out the session.
Antonelli is chasing a sixth-successive win this weekend having stormed into a 66 point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the standings after six rounds of the season.
Russell has failed to score in the previous two races after his engine expired in Montreal and he was dropped out of the points by a late drive-through penalty in Monaco as Mercedes failed to serve his original five-second penalty correctly.
The British driver is now 68 points adrift and needs to stop the rot and end the run of his teenage teammate Antonelli if he wants to claw his way back into title contention.
The Italian’s car was driven by reserve driver Fred Vesti but Russell’s pace again underlined Mercedes’ dominance in 2026 -- having won every race so far.
The 28-year-old ended the session 0.203 seconds clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari ahead of Max Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver a whopping 0.684 seconds off the pace.
Leonardo Fornaroli was the best-placed rookie, finishing fifth in Lando Norris’ McLaren.
Hamilton, who vowed to chase Antonelli down for the rest of the season after claiming successive second-place finishes for Ferrari, was also absent from the weekend’s first running.
Williams’ British rookie Luke Browning was unable to complete a single lap due to an electrical issue.
Antonelli, Hamilton and Norris will be among the drivers returning to action when the second session gets under way at 5 p.m. local time (4 p.m. BST).
