Ferrari found a genius way to gain a sneaky advantage at the new Spanish Grand Prix

Ferrari have found a clever way to steal a march on their Formula 1 rivals ahead of the first Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid's Madring.

F1 will hit the new street circuit in September, marking the second race weekend of the season in Spain.

The Barcelona-Catalunya GP in June was won by Lewis Hamilton, who took the chequered flag for the first time in a Ferrari.

With Madrid taking over the Spanish GP mantle from this season, teams have had very limited chance to get to know the circuit in advance.

The Madring is a street circuit that was built around Madrid's IFEMA Exhibition Centre and is expected to offer ample overtaking opportunities and boasts the longest banked curve on the Formula 1 calendar.

Every new track presents different challenges to drivers and teams alike, and if Hamilton can take a second successive GP win in Spain as he tries to force his way into a championship race, Ferrari's ability to test the new circuit before the opposition could be one of the major factors.

According to Motorsport.com, Hamilton and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc tapped into the team's commercial filming allocation to assess the lay of the land at the Madring.

'Ferrari was very clever in booking the track: the asphalt strip and the pit building are complete, while all the other infrastructure that makes up the ultra-modern facility designed by Jarno Zaffelli and then inherited by the architect [Hermann] Tilke's studio is still nearing completion,' reported Motorsport.com.

'The drivers can become familiar with the trajectories of a track on which no one has driven and the technicians will be able to collect important telemetry data to define the set-ups and study the best strategies in electronic management.

'[Ferrari] found a grey area in the regulations that doesn't prevent them from going to a filming day on a new track on the F1 world calendar... the restrictions apparently were written for TPC [testing of previous cars]. Well done to Ferrari, demonstrating their new, very aggressive approach.'

The team 'categorically denied' that their test, which took advantage of their assigned 200km limit for commercial filming, was funded by the organisers of the Spanish GP.

Ferrari took fans behind the scenes at the new street circuit

Scuderia Ferrari certainly weren't secretive about their testing day at the Madring.

The team shared a large amount of footage and photography showing off Hamilton and Leclerc's introductions to the new circuit on what they very pointedly labelled 'filming day' on social media.

Ferrari's posts on X show both drivers in action and revealing some of the completed infrastructure around the track.

Hamilton has closed the gap on Kimi Antonelli and George Russell at the top of the drivers' standings thanks to four podiums in the last five races, while Leclerc also capitalised on Ferrari's boosted straight-line speed to seal a win in the British GP at Silverstone.

Antonelli has finished outside the points twice in three Grands Prix and Hamilton will be desperate to further reduce the 32-point deficit in the Belgian GP at Spa.