F1 Spanish Grand Prix practice LIVE: Bottas pulls OUT of session with ‘broke’ car as Vettel leads sectors – latest

Russell goes behind Leclerc after a flying lap

The Mercedes driver is putting the changes the Silver Arrows have made to good use with alap of 1:19:787

Max leading sectors one and three

Vettel goes quickest

The Aston Martin man shoots to the top of the time sheets with a lap of 1:20:703

That’s bad luck for Bottas

He has been looking strong this season but was only 17th quickest in FP1 and has now been denied a chunk of time in FP2.

Valtteri Bottas is out of this session

He has pulled to the side of the track in his Alfa Romeo and says “something is broke”.

Virtual Safety Car is deployed.

FP2 is Go

Green light for the second session and already a good start for Verstappen.

The order from FP1

Session is done – Leclerc stays top.

The Ferrari man is quickest, Sainz is second and Verstappen is third.

Russell is fourth in an encouraging session for Mercedes. Hamilton is sixth on the timesheets.

Alonso will be investigated

The Spaniard will be quizzed by the stewards after the session for blocking Hamilton.

Verstappen and Bottas will also be looked at.

Could be a busy lunch time in the stewards’ room.

Leclerc tops the times

The Ferrari man just beats Sainz while Verstappen is in third place.

Great turn out in Barcelona

Organisers say that Saturday and Sunday are both sold out. F1 is certainly in good health.

The FIA have also investigated Aston Martin upgrades – and are satisfied they have not broken the rules.

The governing body have spoken with team officials and seem happy with their explanation.

A statement said: “The FIA carried out a routine pre-event legality check of the planned aerodynamic upgrade of the Aston Martin team for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix. During this process, it became apparent that a number of features on the Aston Martin resembled those of another Competitor. The FIA therefore launched an investigation to check compliance with Article 17.3 of the Technical Regulations, and in particular the topic of “Reverse Engineering” and potential illicit IP transfer.

“Both teams collaborated fully with the FIA in this investigation and provided all the relevant information. The investigation, which involved CAD checks and a detailed analysis of the development process adopted by Aston Martin, confirmed that no wrongdoing had been committed, and therefore the FIA considers that the Aston Martin aerodynamic upgrades are compliant.

“Article 17.3 specifically defines and prohibits “Reverse Engineering”, i.e. the digital process of converting photographs (or other data) to CAD models, and prohibits IP transfer between teams, but equally, this Article permits car designs getting influenced by those of competitors, as has always been the case in Formula 1. In the analysis we carried out we confirmed that the processes followed by Aston Martin were consistent with this Article’s requirements.”

Here is what Red Bull boss Christian Horner has had to say on the subject.

“It is quite a thing to instruct your team to come up with a very close-looking clone of our car,” he said.

“A few people have moved over the winter period, and what you can’t control is what they take in their heads.”

Plenty of eyes on the Aston Martin…

You might remember the row over the “pink Mercedes” when the same team copied the design of the previous year’s Mercedes.

The team were then known as Racing Point and their 2020 car was a striking resemblance to the one Lewis Hamilton won the title with in 2019.

Well, this time their new updates have made their green Aston look a bit like the Red Dull.

Green light in Barcelona

We are go for first practice. This could be a busy session on track, plenty of new parts on the cars for this weekend’s Spanish GP.