We’ve become somewhat used to McLaren leading the way for longer run pace, both in practice and over grands prix, particularly as they have seemed to manage their tyres in a way other top teams haven’t been able to emulate. But this may have switched around in Spain, be it as a result of the circuit characteristics, high track temperature, or perhaps the new technical directive, but more likely a sum of the various factors at play.

Max Verstappen’s average lap time over a 9-lap long stint on the C3 soft tyre was over three tenths clear of an exactly comparable stint in terms of length and tyre (9 laps, C3) from Lando Norris.

Further examination of the way the lap times unfold over the stints shows that Norris suffers a larger increase in time as the laps go on, in fact Norris’ final lap was 0.629s slower than his first. For Verstappen in contrast, his final lap was just 0.138s slower than his first.

While Verstappen concluded that it “was an okay Friday”, more downbeat than you might expect after looking at the data, it was a completely different story for his teammate Yuki Tsunoda who simply could not understand why he was struggling so much for pace.

“It’s hard to tell the exact limitation that we have and what’s causing us to struggle,” he said, but its effect is clear to see in the data. Unlike Verstappen, and most drivers in the field, Tsunoda completed long runs on the soft and on the medium yet his 8 lap stint on the C3 was just over a second slower than Verstappen’s.

To the McLaren teammates, and Piastri was a way off Norris too. He completed 14 laps on the C2 medium tyre, with an average time 0.658s slower than Norris’. While this may come down to the tyre difference between the pair, it may also be due to the fact that Piastri ran a lower downforce rear wing than Norris for Friday, which would not only mean his lap time suffered but also that he perhaps suffered from increased tyre degradation.

Looking to the rest of the field and interestingly there were some unexpected drivers in the top 5 for pace – Gasly ranked third and Hulkenberg ranked fifth. Both of these drivers were on the C2 medium unlike others in the top 5, which could be behind this somewhat surprising ranking.

While Ferrari were having notable struggles, with Hamilton calling his car “undriveable” and Leclerc saying the grip was “not as good as we’d like it to be”, they ranked second of the teams for long run pace on the soft tyre, only behind Red Bull. Just 0.097s separated the two top teams based on Friday’s running, with McLaren then another 0.150s from Ferrari’s average.

Using the more durable medium and hard tyres again puts Alpine perhaps higher than you may expect, although Gasly did admit that the “car feels in a good window” which could put them in direct competition with other top midfield teams like Racing Bulls or Williams this weekend should it continue.

Turning to the back end of the field and we find Mercedes, who spent the day aiming “to understand some of our recent long run issues” by running the cars in “quite different configurations”, according to their trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin.

This experimentation left Russell 9th in the driver ranking and Antonelli further back in 19th, but it’s a price the team will be willing to pay to gain valuable understanding. Shovlin concluded that they were able to learn “a good amount” yet also stated that “keeping the tyres alive across the stint length is going to be difficult.”

And indeed that will be a huge theme this weekend for each team, especially over the grand prix, but even just over single laps in qualifying with the front lefts being punished the most. Where a team can manage this effectively, they’ll likely have the advantage and more open strategic options – making it the ultimate target in Barcelona.