Max Verstappen set the pace in the first hour of Belgian Grand Prix practice, ahead of fast Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Sporting an old-spec rear wing after crashes at Austria and Silverstone, the Dutchman clocked 1m 47.070s to put Red Bull among the early leaders at Spa-Francorchamps, just over a tenth ahead of Hamilton.
Several teams arrived in Belgium with new components, resulting in Lando Norris and Isak Hajjar receiving significant grid penalties ahead of the 44-lap race: Norris will have 10 places added to his qualifying result, while Hajjar is expected to drop to the back of the grid with a 20-place penalty.
Before that they had to contend with the first FP at Spa-Francorchamps, where Carlos Sainz took charge of the Williams team as soon as the lights turned green. Title contender George Russell set an opening record of 1m 50.654s, but it was quickly lowered by Hamilton and Verstappen.
Hajar then became the first to cover 1m 48s, perhaps unsurprisingly given he was the only rider to use soft tires in the first round of FP1, with most opting for the firmer medium compound.
Verstappen’s fellow Red Bull managed to unleash the potential of his tires and cut his time sharply in the opening 10 minutes, while Liam Lawson narrowly avoided a gravel trip in the sister Racing Bulls car.
While Red Bull started as the team to beat at Spa, McLaren had initially planned to use the session as a testing opportunity for Norris, who drove briefly with an aero rake and soft tires but failed to set a representative time.
Meanwhile, championship leader Kimi Antonelli, 2.619 seconds off the pace in 11th, was forced to swerve to avoid the unsuspecting Sainz, prompting him to complain “what an idiot” on the radio. The Spaniard was then flagged for crossing the line at the pit entrance, which will be investigated after first practice.
At the halfway point, more drivers began to switch to soft tires and Verstappen took first place by two tenths over his teammate. The Mercedes pairing of Antonelli and Russell made some improvement in the line-up but were still more than half a second behind their rivals.
Consequently, the Italian asked that they shift their focus to the long runs as he felt “a little nervous” on his flying laps – something Ferrari didn’t appear to be struggling with as Hamilton and Leclerc moved up to second and third respectively.
The top three, led by Verstappen, remained unchanged for the rest of the session, with Hajjar finishing fourth, leaving Red Bull and Ferrari as the top performers. Oscar Piastri finished fifth for McLaren, but later suffered a hydraulic pressure problem which forced him off the track briefly before his engineer instructed him to slowly return to the pits.
Antonelli followed in sixth position, ahead of Norris and Russell’s second Mercedes, while Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top ten. Lawson had just missed Nico Hulkenberg, Ollie Bierman, Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto in 11th.
Esteban Ocon, celebrating 10 years since his Formula 1 debut, finished 16th, followed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez. Sainz’s problems continued as he stalled in 20th place, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Jack Crawford, driving Fernando Alonso’s FP1 contender, finishing 21st and 22nd.
Drivers and teams will now take the opportunity to take stock before the start of Free Practice 2 at 17:00 local time.