Three Friday practice drivers were in action for the first session at Barcelona, with Susie Wolff, Jolyon Palmer and Raffaele Marciello all taking their chance to get behind the wheel once more. Wolff was making her practice debut this season, and finished last of the three super-subs.

Elsewhere, Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton to the top of the timesheets, and as usual it was close between the pair of them but not so much to the rest of the field. Toro Rosso were looking strong and rivalling sister team Red Bull for pace. Daniel Ricciardo only managed ten minutes of running towards the end of the session, however. Over at Lotus, Pastor Maldonado had a gearbox issue, whilst the pair at McLaren were running their new livery for the first time.