#BelgianGP FP1: @ValtteriBottas tops time-sheets ahead of @Max33Verstappen. #F1

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas topped a rain-affected opening FP1 session at the Belgian GP ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.

Rain fell in the hours leading up to FP1’s start meaning there was no early rush to emerge from the pits, with the majority of the field waiting a few moments before hitting the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps undertaking several slow tours on the intermediate rubber.

After the opening ten minutes it became clear as the track surface dried and the drivers switched to the slicks – lead by McLaren’s Lando Norris.

The Briton posted the first timed lap, a 1:50.191, set on the C3 yellow-marked medium compounds, which was beaten by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel a few minutes later with the German setting a 1:49.324, also on the mediums.

Conditions were still slippery – as proved by the driver’s initial flyers with their lap-times 10 seconds slower than last year’s 2020 Belgian Grand Prix pole time and the field gently touching the kerbs – and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda spinning at the exit of La Source as they began their opening hot-lap on the slicker rubber, with both drivers looping around as they planted the throttle exiting the tight right-hand opening corner and spinning off backwards and then into the run-off area exit and pit-lane exit respectively in separate moments.

The top of the time-sheet benchmark fell regularly during the next 15 minutes, with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and AlphaTauri’s Gasly enjoying small stints at the top before Vettel’s 1:48.199, as his first stint on the medium tyres continued, putting the four-time World Champion back on-top with 20 minutes gone on the clock.

Hungarian GP winner Esteban Ocon used his medium rubber to post two successive quick laps to lower the best time to a 1:47.250, which he beat a tour later with a 1:47.219.

With almost half an hour completed, Verstappen was yet to register a time on the board as he carried on with the green side-walled intermediates longer than the majority of the field as Red Bull gathered data on the performance of his Red Bull RB16B’s front-left tyre, which was covered in flow-viz paint during the early proceedings.

The Dutchman finally set a time just before the midway point, a 1:46.879, which put the Red Bull driver straight to the top of the pile on the C2 white-branded hards.

Verstappen’s stint continued into the early part of the final half of the session and brought the benchmark down to a 1:46.423 and then a 1:45.905 with just over 20 minutes left.

As the final third of FP1 started, drivers began emerging on the C4 red side-walled softer compounds, with Ricciardo and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll setting the initial times on the quicker rubber, all just a second slower than Verstappen’s benchmark.

Bottas moved up the order with his initial stint on the softs with 15 minutes remaining, the Finn’s 1:45.199 putting him top of the time-sheets.

Mercedes split the rear wing setups on both their respective drivers for FP1, with reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton running a larger wing compared to Bottas, which the former reported as “massively slow on the straights”.

But the championship leader was on course to beating his Silver Arrow team-mate’s best effort with his first hot-lap on the softs until he encountered Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi at the Bus Stop Chicane.

With Latifi holding onto the racing line, with the Canadian unaware that Hamilton had closed in with a tow throughout the third sector, the Mercedes driver had to go left and backed off on the outside line, which meant Hamilton was unable to improve and remained far down the order.

Verstappen’s switch to the softer tyres did not bring him back into P1 as his first run on the softs put him 0.2 seconds adrift of Bottas, despite being being then a personal best with the quickest sector two and time lost in sector three.

This happened again on his second flyer, where he cut the gap to Bottas to 0.164 seconds, but Verstappen again struggled in the final corners, where spots of rain started falling in the closing stages.

Those droplets plus gravel on the circuit at the exit of the final part of Les Combes from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sliding off the track and through the gravel trap on his initial stint on the softs, meant the final order remained stable.

This secured Bottas on top, followed by Verstappen and Gasly, who jumped up to third during his late run on the softs, with Leclerc and his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz rounding out the top five.

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was sixth and in-front of Vettel and Norris, with Alpine F1 Team pairing Ocon and Fernando Alonso completing the top ten.

Aston Martin’s Stroll was 11th and in-front of McLaren’s Ricciardo in 12th and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi 13th.

Williams Racing’s George Russell took 14th and ahead of the aforementioned Tsunoda, Latifi and Raikkonen in 15th, 16th and 17th places respectively,

World Championship leader Hamilton finished a low-18th in his Mercedes and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1074/belgium/practice-1.html

#Formula1 @Rolex #BelgianGP 2021 Preview. #F1