Mercedes Nico Rosberg and Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen took on practice session each in Friday\u2019s practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Hamilton & Alonso <\/em><\/p>\n Both Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and McLaren\u2019s Fernando Alonso will start from the back as they have penalties for changing components on their power units. We know both drivers will start on the back row as it stands Alonso will start last but we are almost certain Hamilton will fit a new power unit overnight which means he will start last.<\/p>\n Also Marcus Ericsson has also been handed a back row start for the engine change so this could make the grid math difficult. I imagine it will be if they all have the same changes it would be Hamilton, Alonso, Ericsson (based on championship postion.) plus how many penalties they have<\/p>\n Red Bull<\/em><\/p>\n Like before the summer break we saw Ferrari behind Red Bull and they appear to still be behind in terms of pace. Red Bull leap frogged Ferrari in Germany and from what we saw in FP2 has some pace to challenge Mercedes. Max Verstappen will want to win if Rosberg has difficulties as it is near enough his home race.<\/p>\n He said \u201cit has been a very positive Friday for us. We showed great pace today in comparison with other teams, though it\u2019s hard to say what Mercedes is like. Of course I\u2019m happy to be first in front of so many Dutch fans but it\u2019s still not qualifying and not the race so let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n Verstappen will really want this win being born in Hasselt just over an hour away from the circuit. Also lots of fans from watching the practice sessions had banners for him.<\/p>\n Ferrari<\/em><\/p>\n Ferrari\u2019s hopes of bouncing back following the summer break has not been shown on track. They were hoping that the could repass Red Bull on track this week going to Monza next week to motivate the team and the Tifosi.<\/p>\n Ferrari as I wrote last month \u2018While mathematically possible I feel it\u2019s unlikely with the brilliant Mercedes that they can win this seasons titles.<\/p>\n They won\u2019t give up on 2016 until it\u2019s mathematically impossible to win both titles as it there mandate to win the title for the greatest team in F1 history.\u2019<\/p>\n Vettel said \u201cToday it was a very tricky day. It is very hot for Spa, and so it’s very slippery out there. But I think in general, everybody was struggling to make the tyres last and sliding quite a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, I was struggling a bit with the balance of the car, but this is up to us. We need to improve the car. It is not yet where we want it to be. But I am sure we will be faster.\u201d<\/p>\n Force India<\/em><\/p>\n Spa has always through-out the various different owners been a very good circuit for the Silverstone based team. They have a really strong car we saw in FP2 with Nico Hulkenberg being half a second faster than Vettel. Sergio Perez isn\u2019t as confident saying he think they need better balance<\/p>\n He says \u201cThe first indications are positive, but there\u2019s still a lot of work to be done on the car to solve a few little issues. We need to understand the car balance a bit more and develop our set-up from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Halo test<\/em><\/p>\n Three drivers Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz tested the halo head device during FP1. Rosberg was running it when he set his fastest lap on track.<\/p>\n The sport has delayed plans to introduce the cockpit protection for next season, the FIA still want the Halo\u00a0to be brought in for 2018.<\/p>\n Rosberg told Sky Sports \u201cThe team have done a great job on the Halo. It doesn’t disturb me when driving. I could go fast straight away and even set the best time of the session with it this morning, so I think that was a success.\u201d<\/p>\n Qualifying Preview<\/em><\/p>\n The fight for pole will be between the Mercedes and Red Bull. I expect Hamilton to run through-out the session and as ever he will need to set a time within 107% to qualify. Whether he runs in the closing moments is another question.<\/p>\n The top three (without penalties) Rosberg, Hamilton, Verstappen<\/p>\n RELATED<\/strong><\/p>\n Mercedes Nico Rosberg and Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen took on practice session each in Friday\u2019s practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix. Hamilton & Alonso Both Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and McLaren\u2019s Fernando Alonso will start from the back as they have penalties for changing components on their power units. We know both drivers will start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,23],"tags":[264,265,1443,1569,1869,1870],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-this-grand-prix","tag-belgian-gp","tag-belgian-grand-prix","tag-notebook","tag-practice","tag-spa","tag-spa-francochamps"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n