Leclerc lead practices for Spanish Grand Prix

ForMONTMELÓ, SPAIN — mula One leader Charles Leclerc of Ferrari topped both practices at the Span- ish Grand Prix on Friday while Mercedes appeared to close the gap.

Leclerc topped the time charts in both hour-long sessions. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were next in their Mercedes, which have struggled to keep up with Ferrari and Red Bull this season. They were within 0.2 seconds of Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz clocked the fourth best time in his Ferrari, followed by defending champion Max Verstappen for Red Bull.

Leclerc leads Verstappen by 19 points after five races, but Verstappen has cut the deficit after back-to-back wins in Italy and Miami.

Te a ms o ften roll out major upgrades at the Spanish GP with a hand- ful of races already in the bag and this well-known circuit, where teams also test in winter, is perfect for gauging progress.

Ferrari is hoping that upgrades it has brought to Spain can help it match the race speed that Red Bull has enjoyed in the last two races, when Verstap- pen beat Leclerc.

“Hopefully (the upgrade) will be a good one and enough to be in front of Red Bull again,” Leclerc said.

Verstappen said his team won’t roll out any surprises but is planning to reduce the weight of the car.

“Our car is a bit fat so we need to slim it down,”

Verstappen said before getting behind the wheel on Friday.

It appears that focusing on the car’s reliability is the top priority for Red Bull, after car failures kept Verstappen from finishing in Bahrain and Australia, where Leclerc won.

“(Ferrari) are coming with a few upgrades so it will be interesting to see what that gives them at the end of the day,” Verstappen said. “We just need to focus on our package. We want a clean weekend.”

Hamilton is not used to being an outside contender in Barcelona, where he was won six times and five years in a row. But he was encouraged by the car’s apparent improvements.

Hamilton said he was “super happy with the progress” a nd that his engineers had stabilized his Mercedes.

“We are not the quickest yet but we are on our way. It is the first time I have driven down the straight without bouncing,” Hamilton said. “I am really grateful for those upgrades, we just need to fine-tune them. We can get it in even better shape tomorrow so we can tackle the guys up ahead.”

The best result this season for Hamilton, a 103time race winner, is third place at the season opener in Bahrain. He is sixth in the standings with 36 points. Leclerc leads with 104.

Russell has so far surprisingly outperformed the seven-time world champion in his first year with Mercedes, finishing higher than his new teammate in four of five races.