Lewis Hamilton publicly called out in Spanish GP practice as Verstappen hands Norris issue

was called out by fellow Formula One ace , who has also vowed to enact revenge on the Ferrari driver. The pair, along with the rest of the Formula One cohort were taking part in practice for the .

It comes after a largely uneventful Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, with Hamilton having labelled his fifth-place finish "miserable". The seven-time world champion has been struggling to get to grips with his car ever since he joined the constructor, but it was a close call with Alonso that raised hairs in Spain.

Hamilton, who finished practice as the 11th fastest car, had been receiving a tow down the main straight from Alonso's Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll during FP2. Unsurprisingly, the Spanish driver, looking to impress in his home race, wasn't best pleased.

Taking to the team radio to air his frustration, Alonso sarcastically said: "We have the hero of the day in front of us." To which Andrew Vizard, Alonso's race engineer, replied: "Yeah. That was clever, wasn't it? That's good."

Alonso is known to have a short temper at times, with the two-time world champion later adding: "Yeah. The good thing is that the weekend is very long. Even the championship is very long."

Elsewhere on the first day of action in Catalonia, Max Verstappen's performance caught the eye, given he finished Friday with the exact same deficit as Lando Norris. The McLaren ace, alongside team-mate and championship leader Oscar Piastri, have led the way so far this year, but despite some limitations with his Red Bull motor, Verstappen has refused to be ruled out of it.

While it would take a monumental effort to oust either of the McLaren drivers out of the top spot, Verstappen is within touching distance, and, according to Piastri, is still considered a contender. Speaking ahead of practice, the Australian said: "I don't think he can be counted out.

"The gap is not very large at the moment, and they've genuinely been competitive at a decent number of circuits now. Of course, there's been weekends where we've been stronger, but they've been developing their car, they've been finding more performance, so I think at this point, Max is definitely still in the fight."