#Vettel heads @ScuderiaFerrari 1-2 in #BelgianGP opening practice. #F1
Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90, in action during Free Practice One at the Formula 1 Johnnie Walker Belgian Grand Prix 2019, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. Image credit to LAT/Sutton Images.
Sebastian Vettel lead a Ferrari one-two in the opening practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix as the Formula 1 season resumed.
Vettel was 0.214 seconds quicker than team-mate Charles Leclerc, where championship leader Lewis Hamilton encountered a difficult start to the weekend.
Hamilton ended the session in sixth place, which saw the Briton suffer a pedal issue, along with a telemetry issue and featuring some errors on his quick laps.
The Scuderia have been regarded as the favourites for the weekend due to their straight-line speed advantage and the power-relative circuit of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Ferrari jumped to the top of the time-sheets narrowly after the halfway point of the session, as firstly, Leclerc bumped Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen off the top spot and then Vettel posted an even quicker time.
Vettel’s benchmark was a 1:44.574 on the red-branded soft compounds, which was 0.933 seconds quicker than Verstappen’s effort as the Scuderia enjoyed a promising start to the Belgian GP weekend.
Verstappen only made a slight improvement on his early time, posting a 1:45.507 – only less than a tenth faster than new team-mate Alexander Albon.
Albon, the Thai-Briton, who replaced Pierre Gasly from this race onwards, spent his first session in the senior squad going through the team’s settings and procedures.
Albon’s mindset heading into Spa was to tune out the “noise and attention” and his benchmark of a 1:45.584 was a positive start to the weekend.
At the back end of the field, his predecessor Gasly’s return to Toro Rosso started with a lowly 18th place and 3.394 seconds adrift of Vettel’s benchmark – one position and three tenths behind the Faenza-based outfit’s full-time driver Daniil Kvyat.
The Noah’s Ark effect of the top six positions was completed by the Mercedes pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton, who lost valuable time early after reporting a lack of power and almost came to a halt before making it back to the pits.
Recently confirmed Silver Arrows driver in 2020 Bottas eventually out-paced Hamilton by less than a tenth, as the latter suffered a wide moment at La Source and wound up dipping into the grass on the rundown to Pouhon after the Briton had moment off-track into the run-off area at the exit of the left-hander.
They were 1.3 seconds off, but the two Mercedes drivers were running the yellow mediums compared to their rivals who ran softs.
Behind the usual big three, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll survived after losing a massive amount of his RP19 racer’s engine cover bodywork to post the seventh best time.
Stroll, running Mercedes’ latest upgraded engine, which all six-powered cars have been equipped with – took first blood in the midfield fight and ahead of Renault F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo who was eighth.
The other Racing Point of Sergio Perez was ninth quickest in the session and in-front of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz who completed the top ten.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who is leaving the French-Enstone outfit at season’s end, took 11th and ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who was 12th and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who finished 13th.
The two Haas F1 Team VF-19’s of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were 14th and 16th respectively with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who split the duo in-between in 15th.
Behind the aforementioned Toro Rosso pairing, Williams test driver Nicholas Latifi out-paced regular Robert Kubica to win the Grove battle at the rear.
You can read the full Formula 1 Johnnie Walker Belgian Grand Prix 2019 Free Practice One Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1012/belgium/practice-1.html
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