Not even time to go out on track for the first session that penalties are already lining up ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen will be taking a 10 – place grid penalty for changing the ICE, while Yuki Tsunoda will be starting from the very back of the grid: multiple new components for the Japanese.
On a lighter note Alpine is sporting a brand new promotional livery, a black and red design recalling Deadpool’s movie.
A lot of upgrade packages making their debut, with Mercedes, Alpine, and Sauber bringing the biggest packages while McLaren and Ferrari only making some tweaks to better adapt to the nature of the circuit.
But let’s see how they look in this first free practice session of the weekend down the asphalt of Spa.
First cars to head out on track as light go green are the two Mercedeses and Yuki Tsunoda’s RB, later on comes Max Verstappen with a different Red Bull than the one he sported last weekend at the Hungaroring: upgrades are all off to better adapt to this circuit.
An early spin for Daniel Ricciardo at La Source, that brings out a yellow flag but causes no more damage than flat spots on his hard tyres, as he manages to avoid the wall just on time.
Only hard and medium tyres are out for those first runs, with Verstappen topping the timesheet followed by the McLarens.
Meanwhile Esteban Ocon is stuck in the garage as mechanics remove the floor to have a look at his Alpine for a suspected water leak.
Many drivers have gone on extremely slow cooldown laps so far and not much action is seen, except for an improved time for both Mercedes, that take up Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s spots behind Verstappen.
Halfway through the session the pack at the front comes back into the pits to switch to the softest compound: it’s red tyres for Verstappen, Russell, Piastri and Norris.
Times have now dropped significantly and the fastest lap so far is Verstappen’s 1m43.372s, not a large gap from Piastri and Russell who are following closely behind.
An advantage that the Red Bull has gained specifically in the middle sector, just as his teammate Sergio Perez is struggling on corner entries.
And who is struggling even more is Alpine, who is still in the garage at work on Esteban Ocon’s car, announcing he won’t be able to take part at all in this FP1.
Ferrari is in the mix, with Lerclerc in sixth behind the Mercedeses and Sainz in P9 between Norris and Lance Stroll, who is running faster than his teammate Fernando Alonso in P12 and Alex Albon is in P3 behind Piastri.
In the final minutes during the long-runs troubles are surfacing for Mercedes as well, with Lewis Hamilton reporting some bouncing and George Russell having issues to keep the rear of his W15.
