Belgium Free Practice 1: Max Verstappen fast, cause for concern for McLaren stars

Although the weather forecast had predicted rain for the opening day at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the GP stars were able to get underway with the first free practice session of the race weekend on Friday in glorious sunshine and an outside temperature of 24 degrees Celsius. The tarmac on the iconic Ardennes circuit had heated up to over 40 degrees by the time the first cars left the pits.

The track, just under 7 km long, quickly filled up and the first lap times appeared just as quickly. In the first quarter of an hour, the Red Bull Racing duo of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar held the top spots, with the four-time champion setting the faster time. However, that didn’t last long: Hadjar, who – unlike Verstappen – started on the soft tyres, took the lead with a time of 1:47.778, followed by his team-mate ahead of the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Fast Racing Bulls times

The Racing Bulls duo of Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson demonstrated their pace with the sixth- and seventh-fastest lap times, followed by George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Kimi Antonelli. Nico Hülkenberg, Alex Albon, Franco Colapinto, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Pérez, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Jak Crawford (in Fernando Alonso’s car) and Lando Norris rounded off the timesheet.

The latter completed an untimed lap and disappeared into the pits for quite a while, before heading out on soft tyres just under six minutes before the halfway point. During the session, the FIA published the list of fresh engine components to be used this weekend, thereby confirming that Hadjar, Stroll and Norris will start the tenth race of the season with a penalty.

Oscar Piastri struggles

By the halfway point, Antonelli had also switched to soft tyres and the championship leader took the top spot with a time of 1:47.603. However, he did not hold onto it for long; Verstappen was soon the fastest again with a time of 1:47.070, as the Red Bull Racing star had also switched to the soft tyres. More and more drivers were pushing hard on the red-marked tyres, resulting in plenty of movement on the timing screen. At the top, however, nothing changed.

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In the closing stages, there were a few off-track incidents as everyone pushed hard once more on the soft tyres. Oscar Piastri was instructed to return slowly to the pits after an unscheduled stop on the track due to a hydraulic problem. In the end, Verstappen finished ahead of Hamilton, Leclerc, Hadjar, Piastri, Antonelli, Norris, Russell, Lindblad and Bortoleto. Lawson, Hülkenberg, Bearman, Albon, Colapinto, Ocon, Gasly, Bottas, Pérez, Sainz, Stroll and Crawford filled the remaining places.