Belgium – Free Practice 1: Vettel in command, Ricciardo at a standstill

After three weeks of vacation, the drivers returned to the track at Spa-Francorchamps for the first free practice session. While Thursday was marked by uncertainty surrounding the presence of Force India, the pink cars were indeed present this Friday morning. The start of the weekend was highlighted by the announcement that Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hülkenberg would already be switching to their fourth engine of the season, which automatically sends them to the back of the grid.

As for Ferrari, it was decided to show a gesture of attention in response to the tragedy caused by the collapse of the Genoa bridge.

In ricordo delle vittime del crollo del ponte di #Genova Remembering the victims of the Genoa motorway bridge pic.twitter.com/50f9eYI0At

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) August 24

The main attraction at the start of the session was the presence of Lando Norris at the wheel of Fernando Alonso’s McLaren, which could only send a clear message to Stoffel Vandoorne. It was interesting to note that Lando Norris requested as early as his fourth lap how he compared to the second McLaren. His engineer then replied that the Belgian had not yet set a time and therefore could not tell him whether he was faster or not than the local. This brief exchange, in any case, showed how important this session was for both men.

Stoffel Vandoorne took a lot of time to set his first timed lap as it only happened after 50 minutes of the session due to brake problems at the beginning. Once on track, he was only able to complete 13 laps. His car ended the session on trestles. One might then wonder if the 88-thousandths gap between the two men, in favor of Lando Norris, was truly representative? Especially since the McLarens were three seconds off the best time…

In front, the two leading teams reclaimed their positions and exchanged the fastest time throughout the session. But Max Verstappen came to stir things up, almost being at home given the number of Dutch fans making the short trip to Spa-Francorchamps. From a tire strategy perspective, it is interesting to note that Valtteri Bottas set his time on medium tires and was only six thousandths of a second off the time set by Kimi Räikkönen on soft tires.

The Force India drivers did not let the team’s off-track troubles affect them as they managed to secure the 7th and 9th fastest times, thus framing Nico Hülkenberg’s Renault.

On the other hand, the session was hidden for Daniel Ricciardo, who was only able to complete his installation lap, which revealed an injector problem. His mechanics then had to race against time to get him back on track. He managed to do so with three minutes left before the checkered flag. Under these conditions, he was still able to outperform the rest of the field except for the top three teams…

🏁 END OF FP1 🏁

TOP TEN
VET
VER
HAM
RAI
BOT
RIC
OCO
HUL
PER
SAI
#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/ha78t46Wt5

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 24, /f1/actualite/22906-officiel-racing-point-force-india-sera-bien-sur-la-grille-en-belgique.html

From our special correspondent in Spa-Francorchamps