Valtteri Bottas surged to t☂he head of the pack for Mercedes in the opening Formula 1 practice session ahead of🐎 this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix as Robert Kubica made his official race weekend comeback with Williams.

Two weeks on from his gut-wrenching defeat in Baku, Bottas sent out an early warning shot to his rivals by finishing eight-tenths clear of the field through FP1 at the Circui🔴t de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The session marked the return of Kubica to an official F1 session after more than seven ye🔯ars away as he replaced Sergey Sirotkin at Williams for the 90-minute practice.

One-time grand p🌸rix winner Kubica turned in his first grand prix weekend laps since the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but could only finish 19th-fastest, having also suffered a spin a༺t Turn 13.

Kubica was not the only driver to get caught out in a messy session that saw many go off-track at points, with Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll paying the price for mistakes as💧 their FP1🏅s ended early.

Ricciardo went off at Turn 4 with an hour left on the clock, b🎶ringing his session to an early end after hitt𝔍ing the wall. Brendon Hartley and Romain Grosjean also had moments at the same corner, but were able to avoid the barrier.

Stroll also managed not to damage his Williams after kissing the wall at the slower🐭-speed Turn 5, but was beached in the gravel, curtailing his session.

﷽Lewis Hamilton to put up the closest fight to Mercedes teammate Bottas at the front of the pack, finishing eight-tenths of a second behind in second place. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen followed in P3 for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen in P4, with the latter making a late⛦ improvement on the Medium tyre.

Kimi Raikkonen took fifth i✃n the sister Ferrari, with Ricciardo ending FP1 in seventh place despite his c꧋rash limiting him to just 11 laps.

Home favourite Fernando Alonso led the midfield pack for McLaren by finishing sixth, 1.7 seconds back from Bottas’ headline time, with teammate Stoffel Vandoorne taking nintﷺh as a number of new updates were debuted on the MCL33 car.

Haas teammates Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished P8 and P1ไ1 respectively, split by Vandoorne and Toro Ros🏅so’s Pierre Gasly, the latter completing the top 10.

Charles Leclerc continued his impressive form following his charge to sixth in Baku as he finished 12th, albeit not without a late scare after being squeezed by Magnussen as he crossed the finish 🦂line, prompting an angry response from the Sauber driver over team radio.

Sergio Perez finished as th🍸e lead Force India in P13 ahead of Marcus Ericsson in the second Sauber, with Carlos Saꦚinz Jr. taking 15th for Renault. Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg followed in 16th and 17th respectively ahead of Hartley, with the Williams duo of Kubica and Stroll proppin𒆙g up the running order.