Oscar Piastri was at the top of the only practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix with a comfortable margin over Max Verstappen for Sprint qualification later today.
Piastri’s McLaren, loaded with Downforce, was inviolable in the middle sector and set 0.932s faster than Verstappen for a purple time to set it up for the top position. Verstappen-Being Red Bull Racing car faster along the straight pieces of washing faster in the speed sensitive first and third sectors, but not long enough to overcome the benefit of Piastri through the corners, the Australian at the top of the last with a margin of 0.475.
Lando Norris finished third in the sister McLaren, but the first round of the Brit on soft tires was compromised by walking him wide and on the gravel on Stavelot. A second attempt on the same set of tires brought him in third place, but he was 0.504s slower than his leading teammate.
Norris was slower than Piastri in all three sectors. Combining his best splits over both laps would only have put him a little closer, at 0.386s drift.
George Russell intervened for Mercedes, the Brit also faster than Piaastri in the first and third splits, but no match through the winding middle sector.
Charles Leclerc sent his improved Ferrari to the fifth and 0.906s of the pace. Just like Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, the Italian machine was set up for linear speed and lost bundles of times through the downforce-dependent corners.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the fastest in the last split for Mercedes only 0.957s of the pace. He beat Lewis Hamilton to the place, the second Ferrari driver who is not in the last split to teammate Leclerc in the last split.
Lance Stroll recovered early in the session of a chair change of 15 minutes that he cost him about five laps of mileage to end the hour eighth for Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso, the two who closely corresponded to just over 1S outside the pace. Isack Hadjar completed the top 10 for racing bulls.
The Carlos Sainz session went to the worst possible start, forced the Spaniard to link back to Pit Lane at the end of his first round with a “critical” fuel system problem. It took his Williams team for half an hour to repair the car, so Sainz left Laps on rounds, but his fastest tour was good enough for 11th teammate Alex Albon in the 12th. Sauber drivers Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg followed 1.2 and 1.4 seconds of the pace respectively.
Liam Lawson was 15 hours ahead of Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, the Red Bull Racing driver 15 places and 2,066s behind teammate Verstappen.
Franco Colapinto was 19th for Oliver Bearman at the back of the field, the British Rookie more than 3 seconds from the pace.
Result
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