Belgium – Free Practice 1: Vettel the fastest on return

At exactly 11 a.m., the light turns green at the end of the pit lane, and Formula 1 officially returns to the track. Max Verstappen is the first to head out, and very quickly the entire lineup takes to the track for an installation lap, with the exception of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

At Williams, Nicholas Latifi, F2 driver with Dams, has taken the place of George Russell alongside Robert Kubica. The Briton is present on the overpass in the pit lane. In the Renault garage, Nico Hülkenberg watches the dismantling of his car, which is placed on jacks. The mechanics seem to be focused on the front part, specifically the floor.

As the session approaches the fifteen-minute mark, Lando Norris breaks the silence that prevailed in the Belgian Ardennes. Bottas and Hamilton also make an appearance, with the Finn being the first to launch an attack on the clock while Lewis Hamilton reports an issue with the new engine introduced by Mercedes this weekend. The timed lap then goes to Bottas with a rather slow 2:04.174 as Latifi completes a 1:50.844 shortly after.

The first spin can be attributed to Robert Kubica. The Pole loses his Williams in the second part of the Source hairpin, a harmless spin. The virtual safety car is deployed on track due to debris at the top of the Kemmel straight, caused by the engine cover of Stroll’s Racing Point that shattered.

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR

We have some debris on the track, and it’s come from Lance Stroll’s engine cover 👀#F1 #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/4XN5hBHnYo

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 30, 2019

At the end of the first third of the session, here are the times rankings: Ricciardo, Verstappen, Leclerc, Stroll, Bottas, Hülkenberg, Pérez, Sainz, Kvyat, Grosjean, Vettel, Albon, Magnussen, Norris, Räikkönen, Latifi, Giovinazzi, Gasly, Kubica, Hamilton.

Once the VSC was cleared, Verstappen resumed the chase against the clock with a 1:45.803, putting Daniel Ricciardo’s time nearly a second behind. At Mercedes, the problem with Lewis Hamilton’s car has been resolved; the accelerator pedal was to blame.

Very little activity on track, the return to the Belgian circuit is happening gently. Only Carlos Sainz completes several timed laps and improves his score to move up to second place, still 754 thousandths behind Max Verstappen’s time.

While Lewis Hamilton still hasn’t set a timed lap, the Ferrari drivers have officially kicked off the hostilities with a 1:44.574 from Sebastian Vettel, followed by Charles Leclerc with a 1:44.788. Verstappen remains the closest to the men in Red with the third-fastest time, more than nine-tenths behind. Finally, the Briton secures the tenth-fastest time on his first attempt. He then moves up to sixth place after a subsequent attempt.

On the French side, the start of the season is modest with Romain Grosjean in fourteenth, driving with the new chassis specification as the low downforce package wasn’t available on the early season version; Pierre Gasly is gradually finding his footing at Toro Rosso with the eighteenth fastest time, three-tenths behind Daniil Kvyat.

The final ranking at the end of the session:

From our correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps