Spa

Vettel leads Ferrari 1-2 in opening Spa practice

Spa Friday morning
Spa Friday morning

While Mercedes ran on harder tires and Lewis Hamilton suffered Power Unit problems, the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2 in opening practice for the Belgium GP at Spa.

Vettel's lap of 1m44.574s topped the best Leclerc could do by 0.214s.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was 3rd quick almost a second back with his new teammate Alexander Albon 1/10th slower.

The sandbagging Mercedes' of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton were 5th and 6th, both 1.3 sec. back.

A bizarre incident for Racing Point’s Lance Stroll early on saw the right-hand part of the Canadian’s engine cover blow off at the end of the Kemmel straight, leading to a brief Virtual Safety Car appearance. When the action got back underway, however, Stroll went on to finish a strong P7 for Racing Point, 1.624s off the lead pace.

Daniel Ricciardo was eighth for Renault, ahead of Stroll’s Racing Point team mate Sergio Perez, with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz rounding out the top 10.

Practice 1 Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:44.574 +0.000s 20
2 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:44.788 +0.214s 20
3 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:45.507 +0.933s 18
4 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing Honda 1:45.584 +1.010s 19
5 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:45.882 +1.308s 25
6 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:45.973 +1.399s 16
7 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point Bwt Mercedes 1:46.198 +1.624s 16
8 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:46.426 +1.852s 23
9 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point Bwt Mercedes 1:46.433 +1.859s 22
10 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Renault 1:46.557 +1.983s 20
11 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:46.669 +2.095s 23
12 4 Lando Norris Mclaren Renault 1:46.670 +2.096s 19
13 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:47.024 +2.450s 20
14 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:47.176 +2.602s 18
15 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:47.333 +2.759s 22
16 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:47.488 +2.914s 21
17 26 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:47.636 +3.062s 20
18 10 Pierre Gasly Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:47.968 +3.394s 26
19 40 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1:48.784 +4.210s 24
20 88 Robert Kubica Williams Mercedes 1:48.966 +4.392s 24