F1 News: Verstappen tops opening practice for 2024 Belgian GP

Facing a 10-place grid penalty for a 5th ICE engine change, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m43.372s to lead opening practice for the 2024 Belgian GP at Spa Francorchamps.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The winner last week in Hungary, Oscar Piastri was 2nd quick for McLaren, 0.531s behind Verstappen.

Alex Albon was an impressive third for Williams, 0.727s behind Verstappen.

The Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top-5, 0.853s and 0.907s behind the Dutchman respectively.

Esteban Ocon missed out the most in that session, managing just the one out-lap before being called back to the pits with a water leak issue. It couldn’t be resolved, so he sat out the entire session – leaving the Frenchman very much on the back foot now for the weekend as a whole.

Max starts his weekend in style then, with a 1m 43.372s, 0.531s ahead of Piastri and 0.727s clear of Albon.

Yes, he has that grid penalty coming, but even so – Verstappen has to be happy with that gap to the rest.

It’s forecast to be dry today, wet tomorrow – so the teams need to get those longer runs done in FP2, so they have plenty of data for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

2024 Belgian GP Practice 1 Results