Spanish Grand Prix: Lance Stroll crashes in opening practice as Valtteri Bottas finishes top

Lance Stroll crashed in FP1 just 70 seconds before the Spanish Grand Prix’s opening session came to an end.

Stroll lost control at turn nine, and ended up tearing across the grass and gravel before smashing into a barrier.

The red flags were brought out with the incident causing the session to end slightly early.

“Jesus Christ, I hit the grass on entry,” said Stroll, before walking away unscathed from the incident.

He suffered substantial damage to his car, but ended FP1 13th, 1.904 seconds behind leader Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas, who leads Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the driver standings by one point, set the pace at the Circuit de Catalunya ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.

The two Ferraris came in 0.115secs and 0.221secs behind Bottas respectively.

Hamilton was fourth in the first running of the weekend, lapping more than half-a-second adrift of his Mercedes team-mate.

Bottas, however, missed the final 15 minutes of the session with an hydraulic issue. An oil leak contributed to the Finn’s engine shutting down, with Mercedes now investigating the source of the problem.