Max Verstappen tops practice one at Spa Francorchamps with a 1:47.070. He finishes the session ahead of the two Ferraris. An unusually dry practice in Belgium sees constant improvement for all drivers, with strong pace in the Red Bull camp. Jak Crawford is the only FP1 rookie this weekend, piloting Fernando Alonso’s AMR26. He unsurprisingly sees a lack of pace with the car still at a huge deficit compared to the teams in front.
Red Bull Look To Take The Fight To Mercedes
Following a second failure of his rear wing in Silverstone, Max Verstappen completes practice one in Spa with an older variation. The older spec was said to cause a slight loss in pace, but Verstappen still looks strong. Isack Hadjar with a grid penalty that will see him at the back of the field, went out on the softs. Teammate, Verstappen, went out on the mediums. The early stages saw the two of them trading purple sectors and P1. It was the later soft tyre run, however, where Verstappen pipped both his teammate and his rivals.
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team’s session, however, wasn’t the smoothest. The championship leaders’ practice started with George Russell complaining of sliding with all four wheels. Later teammate, Kimi Antonelli, swiftly wanted to move onto the long runs after telling his engineer, “I’m getting a bit edgy with this.” Antonelli finished the session in fifth. Teammate Russell sat in eighth but lifted before the line on his fast lap. The Brackley based team will hope to find more comfortability and time in practice two.
Despite a small touch with the gravel for Charles Leclerc, both Ferrari cars seem to be carrying pace over from Silverstone. Lewis Hamilton finished the session in second, only a tenth and half off Verstappen’s fastest time. The Monegasque was under a tenth back from his teammate. The Prancing horses continue to show strong pace and pose a threat to their title rivals, once again, if they fail to find better lap times.
Struggles That Lead To The Pit Lane
The first quarter of Spa’s first practice had the reigning world champion without a lap on the board. He had a problem with his steering wheel and then it appeared that the team were looking at his rear brake configurations. The steering wheel issue, in the first six minutes, resulted in a swap to a spare one. Lando Norris then went out for an outlap and came straight back in. He then repeated this with an aero rake on the rear of the car. According to the Mastercard McLaren F1 team’s app, it was ‘pre-planned’.
The other side of the garage faced trouble at the end of the session. Oscar Piastri was going slowly after coming out of Eau Rouge. It was revealed that he was suffering with low hydraulic pressure. He then parked the car just before Les Combes bringing out a yellow flag. After going again with the approval of his team, he managed to limp back to the pitlane. This Saved his team from having to wait for the car to be returned to the garage.
The early stages of practice had an unusual exchange between the two William’s drivers. Both came back into the pit lane with Carlos Sainz getting Alex Albon’s front wing. Albon was then given a spare. Team Principal James Vowels told Sky Sports that “there has been a little bit of difference between the two front wings.” Something the team felt they needed to check. Sainz later got noted for crossing the dotted line at pit entrance and turning back onto the track. The Spanish driver claimed to be affected by the gearbox on the radio, but will head to the stewards at the end of the session to plead his case.
The Final Top Ten
As the session ended it was a Ferrari two-three headed by Verstappen’s Red Bull. A racing bull and An Audi rounded out the top ten. The classification was as follows:
- Max Verstappen
- Lewis Hamilton
- Charles Leclerc
- Isack Hadjar
- Oscar Piastri
- Kimi Antonelli
- Lando Norris
- George Russell
- Arvid Lindblad
- Gabriel Bortoleto