FP1: Verstappen tops the times from Hamilton and Leclerc in first practice for Belgian GP

Max Verstappen set the pace in the first hour of practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, edging out the rapid Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Sporting an old specification rear wing following crashes in Austria and Silverstone, the Dutchman posted a 1m 47.070s to establish Red Bull as the early frontrunners at Spa-Francorchamps, finishing just over a tenth clear of Hamilton.

Several teams arrived in Belgium with new components, which led to Lando Norris and Isack Hadjar being given significant grid penalties ahead of the 44-lap event – Norris will have 10 places added to his Qualifying result, while Hadjar is expected to drop to the back of the grid with a 20-place penalty.

Before that, they had to tackle FP1 at Spa-Francorchamps, with Carlos Sainz leading the pack for Williams once the light turned green. It was title contender George Russell who set the opening benchmark of 1m 50.654s, but he was quickly demoted by Hamilton and Verstappen.

Hadjar then became the first to break into the 1m 48s bracket – perhaps unsurprising considering that he was the only driver to run soft tyres in the first stage of FP1, with the majority opting for the sturdier medium compound.

The other Red Bull of Verstappen managed to unlock his tyres’ potential and cut his time down drastically in the opening 10 minutes, while Liam Lawson narrowly avoided a trip throughout the gravel in the sister Racing Bulls car.

While Red Bull started out as the team to beat at Spa, McLaren initially looked to be using the session as a testing opportunity for Norris, who briefly headed out with aero rakes and soft tyres but failed to set a representative time.

Meanwhile, championship leader Kimi Antonelli – running 2.619s off the pace in P11 – was forced to swerve to avoid an unaware Sainz, prompting him to complain “what an idiot” over the radio. The Spaniard was then noted for crossing the line at the pit entry, which will be investigated following FP1.

At the halfway mark, more drivers began to switch to soft tyres, with Verstappen taking top spot by two-tenths from his team mate. The Mercedes pair of Antonelli and Russell found some improvement on the compound, but still found themselves over half a second adrift of their rivals.

Consequently, the Italian requested that they switch focus onto long runs as he felt “a bit edgy” on his flying laps – something which Ferrari didn’t seem to struggle with as Hamilton and Leclerc jumped up to P2 and P3 respectively.

The top three, led by Verstappen, remained as they were until the end of the session, with Hadjar finishing P4 to leave Red Bull and Ferrari as the best performers. Oscar Piastri wound up fifth for McLaren but suffered a late hydraulic pressure issue, which saw him pull off track briefly before his engineer instructed him to drive slowly back to the pits.

Antonelli followed in P6 ahead of Norris and the second Mercedes of Russell, while Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top 10. Lawson just missed out in 11th from Nico Hulkenberg, Ollie Bearman, Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto.

Esteban Ocon, celebrating 10 years since his F1 debut, took P16 with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the Cadillac pair of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez up next. Sainz’s woes continued as he settled for P20, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Jak Crawford – who took the wheel of Fernando Alonso’s challenger for FP1 – were P21 and P22.

The drivers and teams will now take the chance to debrief before Free Practice 2 gets underway at 1700 local time.