Vettel puts Ferrari on top in opening Spa practice

Vettel on top in FP1
Vettel on top in FP1

Sebastian Vettel turned a lap of 1m44.358s to sit 31 after the first practice for the Belgian GP at Spa. His time was 0.151s faster than Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton was third quick for Mercedes 3/10ths back and just slightly faster than the 2nd Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top-5 with his new engine installed in his Mercedes.

With both Mercedes and Ferrari unveiling new-spec power units for Spa, FP1 in Belgium was the first opportunity to see which team’s engineers had extracted the most power going into the second half of the season.

And while at first glance, it would appear that Ferrari came away from the session with the early advantage, it’s worth noting that both Mercedes drivers spent most of the session running on the medium tyres, while both Vettel and Raikkonen used the grippier soft tyres,

In the midfield battle, it was the newly-minted Racing Point Force India F1 Team – the same Force India team we saw before the summer break, but racing under a new team entry having come out of administration – who led the way, using their Mercedes power unit to good effect around Spa.

Esteban Ocon finished the session 1.428s off Vettel’s time in seventh, with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg – also running a new unit but set for a grid penalty as a result – 0.165s behind in eighth. Sergio Perez in the second Force India and Carlos Sainz in the second Renault were ninth and 10th, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly, who arrived at the Spa having been confirmed as a Red Bull driver for 2019.

Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:44.358 +0.000s 19
2 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Renault 1:44.509 +0.151s 20
3 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:44.676 +0.318s 22
4 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:44.718 +0.360s 17
5 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:44.724 +0.366s 25
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing Renault 1:45.558 +1.200s 4
7 31 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:45.786 +1.428s 22
8 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:45.951 +1.593s 19
9 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:46.169 +1.811s 21
10 55 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:46.210 +1.852s 19
11 10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso Honda 1:46.300 +1.942s 25
12 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:46.387 +2.029s 20
13 16 Charles Leclerc Sauber Ferrari 1:46.554 +2.196s 20
14 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:46.557 +2.199s 19
15 28 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso Honda 1:46.932 +2.574s 23
16 18 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:46.965 +2.607s 25
17 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:47.012 +2.654s 21
18 47 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:47.364 +3.006s 26
19 35 Sergey Sirotkin Williams Mercedes 1:47.367 +3.009s 23
20 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Renault 1:47.452 +3.094s 13