Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second place in opening practice at the Spanish Grand Prix as his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas lit up the time sheets.

Bottas, who has out-qualified Hamilton at four of the past six races, held the advantage once more with a record-breaking lap of Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

The Finn’s flyer of one minute 18.148 seconds enabled him to finish the best part of nine tenths clear of Hamilton with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third in the order, and the only other driver within one second of Bottas.

Bottas earlier spun at Turn 13, while Vettel, who trails Hamilton by four points in the championship, also came unstuck at Turn 10 in a session notable for incidents.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was the biggest casualty after he lost control of his Red Bull at Turn 4, took a trip across the gravel, and thudded into the barriers.

The Australian’s session was instantly over as he hitched a lift to the pits and his damaged car was taken on a truck back to the Red Bull garage for repairs.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull have all brought revised cars to this weekend’s race with the opening European round of the season traditionally kick-starting the development war.

And Bottas’s early pace suggests Mercedes may have taken a positive stride forward with Vettel’s Ferrari team having previously boasted the most complete package of the season.

Kimi Raikkonen was fifth, 1.3secs adrift of Bottas, with the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Ricciardo, who managed to get in a competitive lap before his session-ending crash, fourth and seventh respectively.

Fernando Alonso finished sixth. McLaren, who have struggled this season despite moving from Honda to Renault engines, have also brought a series of upgrades to Spain.

And, although it is only the early phase of the weekend, they will be encouraged to have seen Alonso trading times with the Red Bull cars. His team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was ninth in the running.

Robert Kubica is back competing at his first grand prix weekend in more than seven years after suffering career-changing injuries to his right arm in a rally crash.

The Williams reserve driver was last but one in the running, 1.3secs ahead of his team-mate Lance Stroll, who finished last.