Max Verstappen dominated FP1 at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix, finishing ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and well clear of his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.
On what is a high-pressure weekend for Perez given Red Bull’s intention to assess his position going forward towards 2025 over the summer break, he ended up nearly a full second down on Verstappen.
Elsewhere, Alex Albon showed Williams’ slippery package is again strong at Spa, while Lewis Hamilton complained of “bouncing” aboard his Mercedes during late-FP1 race simulations.
After the Mercedes drivers had led the pack out of the pits during what was overall a calm session for the field, Verstappen quickly established himself at the top of the order during the early running on the hard and medium tyres.
Verstappen’s 1m44.706s came on the hard tyres to just shade Hamilton’s first lap and from there the Red Bull driver chipped away at that time over the opening first quarter of the session to get down to a 1m44.524s over three fliers, while the Dutchman had to produce very slow cooldown tours to control tyre temperatures.
A lull in action followed thereafter, with George Russell leading Hamilton in second and third at this stage, ahead of Piastri and Lando Norris – all running mediums – before Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari between the McLaren cars with a late flier on the yellow-walled rubber.
Russell then started the flying laps on the soft tyres, with the Briton toppling Verstappen with a 1m44.225s.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
But the world champion was already set to go massively faster as he ran slightly adrift of the Mercedes on the red walled rubber, with Verstappen blasting to a 1m43.372s that was never headed thereafter.
Piastri nudged Russell down to third with a time 0.706s for the Hungary winner, before he then improved on a second softs flier to end up 0.531s slower than Verstappen.
After Perez had put in a time nearly a second down on his team-mate – the Mexican driver regularly wrestling his car at corner entry and dipping his left-rear into the gravel at the last part of Les Combes – Albon jumped up the order for Williams.
Running offset to the rest, Albon produced the best times in the first and final thirds of the lap, to slot into third and demote Russell a further spot to fourth.
He was trailed by Hamilton, Leclerc and Perez, with Norris, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll rounding…
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