BELGIAN GP – Carlos Sainz leads a Ferrari one-two in first practice, as several drivers face grid penalties
Carlos Sainz was fastest in first practice for the Belgian Grand Prix after going just under seven hundredths faster than his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. The Spaniard set a 46.538 on the soft tyre around halfway through the session to go fastest as the two title rivals were given grid penalties for power unit changes, along with serval other drivers.
Sainz had set the pace from the start with a 51.622 before the times started to fall on the newly resurfaced Spa circuit with the times falling quickly. He improved his time by five seconds and will be the likely favourite for pole in qualifying, as Leclerc and Max Verstappen are likely to lead the five cars with back-of-the-grid penalties for new power units.
With Verstappen and Leclerc out of the picture, the door has swung open for their Red Bull and Ferrari team-mates, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, while Mercedes could also be in the mix for their first win of the season. The German manufacturer has been making progress and believes they can challenge for victories in the second half of the season.
The Red Bull driver going third fastest two-tenths behind Sainz, but Verstappen was the first of the top two teams to set a competitive time. He ended the session almost a tenth and a half ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell. The Englishman was eight tenths off the outright pace and ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, while Alex Albon surprised putting his Williams sixth.
Mercedes went into August’s summer break off the back of consecutive double podiums and Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have spoken up their chances of battling frontrunners Red Bull and Ferrari more regularly.
Daniel Ricciardo put his McLaren seventh, the Australian going just over three tenths ahead of the Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda, with Lewis Hamilton ninth ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez rounding out the top ten.
The only real incident of the session was Kevin Magnussen’s Haas stopping at La Source just after the halfway mark. The Dane lost power before stopping just after the hairpin because of an electrical issue, that lead to a ten-minute stoppage as the car was recovered.
Nicolas Latifi put his Williams eleventh fastest going ahead of Guanyu Zhou by eight tenths and Lando Norris. Fernando Alonso was fourteenth going ahead of Sebastian Vettel by a tenth and a half, the German who will be replaced by Alonso next year split the two Alpine’s going half a second ahead of Esteban Ocon.
Even before the rain came conditions were tricky on the repaved and refurbished circuit, which also features the much-vaunted return of gravel traps in many key corners, but apart from the red flag the session remaining incident-free.
Kevin Magnussen put his Haas seventeenth going just under three tenths fastest than teammate Mick Schumacher. Liam Lawson made his practice debut with Alpha Tauri, driving in place of Pierre Gasly, the New Zealander five seconds off the outright pace, and behind Schumacher by almost nine tenths.
Valtteri Bottas was the only driver not to set a time, the Finn only managed two laps, before technical issues confined him to the garage.