Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Bottas in the lead

It’s back to school for Formula 1. The drivers have returned to the splendid Spa-Francorchamps track. As announced in the weather forecast, rain has made an appearance much to the delight of the drivers during this first free practice session.

And the first question that arose among the teams was about the choice of tires. In the beginning, the drivers chose to start with the intermediate tires. While the track seemed wet in some places, the sun was coming out. It was difficult to judge the track conditions. The twenty drivers therefore switched to the medium tires after a few laps. The rain had stopped.

Lando Norris was setting the fastest time on the track with 1.50.191, quickly surpassed by Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin by a few thousandths of a second. Since the track wasn’t dry, some drivers had some scares. At the first turn, Kimi Räikkönen spun with his medium tires, followed shortly after by Yuki Tsunoda who blocked the pit lane exit. The Japanese driver made a dangerous move by reversing onto the track as other drivers were coming, fortunately without consequences.

🎶 “Anything you can do, I can do better 🎶

Räikkönen sends it for a spin at La Source 🔄

Tsunoda repeats the feat outside the pit exit 😅#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/EFdwGkBcSE

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2021

After twenty minutes, the French seemed more in shape with Esteban Ocon setting the best time of the moment: 1.47.250. Pierre Gasly was just behind with 1.47.313. But Red Bull, aiming to regain the lead by the end of the weekend, took the lead with Max Verstappen, followed by his teammate.

During the summer break, as it lasted quite a while, some drivers need some time to get back on track. After his mistake a few minutes earlier, Räikkönen repeated it by hitting the wall at the pit lane entry. The Finn had arrived too fast and touched the wall at the back of his car. A lapse of concentration which caused damage to his car.

Grand Prix de Belgique – FP1

Arrivée un peu trop rapide dans les stands pour Kimi Räikkönen

▶️ https://t.co/7plkVVV12v pic.twitter.com/6FJeo5XKjB

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) August 27, 2021

Later in the session, Lewis Hamilton narrowly avoided an accident. As he was setting a good time behind the wheel of his single-seater benefiting from the slipstream of Nicholas Latifi, the Williams driver did not see him as the Briton was about to overtake him. Fortunately, the seven-time world champion had anticipated and narrowly avoided an unfortunate accident. A few minutes later, it was Charles Leclerc who had a scare by missing the 15th turn.

A very tight moment for Latifi and Hamilton 😳#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/RBg58gl8SF

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2021

And it was Valtteri Bottas who ended this session with the fastest time set on soft tires. The second Mercedes driver loves this track and he proves it perfectly with a time of 1.45.199. He is closely followed by Verstappen (1.45.363) and Pierre Gasly (1.45.699).

The ranking of the first free practice session