Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images
It is quali day at the reconfigured Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
It is Saturday, and that means it is quali day in Formula 1. The grid is in Barcelona for the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix, getting set to take on the reconfigured Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
What have we seen through the first two practice sessions? Speed. Max Verstappen topped the timing sheets with a lap time of 1:13.907 in FP2, followed closely by hometown Fernando Alonso, who posted a best time in FP2 of 1:14.077, just 0.170 seconds behind.
In third place? A bit of a stunner as it was Nico Hülkenberg of Haas who posted the third-fastest time of FP2, as his lap time of 1:14,117 was just 0.270 seconds behind Verstappen.
For good measure, Verstappen’s time — along with many of these — would eclipse the previous fastest lap set on this track, prior to the introduction of the tricky right-left-right chicane near the end of the lap. That chicane, which was introduced in 2007, was removed for this season and replaced with a medium-to-high-speed corner, as was the configuration prior to 2006. The previous fastest lap on that old — now new — design was set in 2005 by Giancarlo Fisichella with a time of 1:15.641.
As we did last week with the Monaco Grand Prix qualifying, we will have you covered every step of the way, so refresh early and often.
