Brendan Lines 29th Aug, 2020 09:00am
Birthday boy Valtteri Bottas topped FP1 at the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton by just +.069s, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was hot on the heels of Mercedes just one thousand of a second off Hamilton.
The flying Finn was in full flight setting his fastest lap on the Soft tyre, a good start to his weekend after forgettable Silverstone Grand Prix weekends.
“It’s been a good birthday so far for me – I can definitely think of worse things to do on your birthday than driving this track. The first session was good, the second turned out to be a bit more tricky. It was nothing major, and I didn’t get the laps quite right, but I think we might have to revert some set-up changes back to FP1,” he said.
Mercedes’ Friday program focused on rear wing comparisons and understanding tyre performance on low and high fuel around the Spa-Francochamps circuit.
As Mercedes dialled in the balance if it’s car, Verstappen radioed that his Red Bull felt tight in the front-end on the Hard tyre, overcoming the RB16’s recent mid corner understeer problems.
Verstappen’s run on the Soft tyre was just over a tenth quicker than Racing Point’s Sergio Perez in P4 and three tenths quicker than Perez’s teammate Lance Stroll who was in P5
Both Racing Point drivers are optimistic there’s more pace to extract from the RP20.
Red Bull’s Alex Albon had a fast car from the get go finishing in P6 around half a second off Mercedes, the Spa layout suiting his RB16, with little sign of recent understeer problems.
Esteban Ocon was the fastest of the Renault’s in P7 two tenths ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo in P9, both Renault cars ran inside The top ten as FP1 progressed.
Carlos Sainz split the Renault’s in his McLaren for P8 as Lando Norris went P10 just five hundredths adrift of Sainz , just seven tenths of a second covered the top ten in FP1.
Despite damaging the floor of his AT01 on a kerb, Alpha Tauri’s mechanics had Pierre Gasly back out on track, Gasly and teammate Daniil Kyvat finished P11 and P12 respectively.
Kimi Raikkonen was the only Alfa Romeo out On track the Finn placed a respectable P13, a power unit issue kept Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa in the garage for FP1.
Fifty horespower down on engine power on a fast Spa layout, Ferrari were punching with one arm tied behind its back, both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel languished in P14 and P15 respectively, but over one and a half seconds off Mercedes pace.
Nicholas Latifi was the fastest of the Williams cars in P16, while George Russell finished P17,both cars opting for lower downforce settings for top end speed come qualifying.
Both Haas cars remained garaged for FP1 after encountering power unit issues on drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen’s out laps.
Full FP1 Results:
| Pos | Driver | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:44.493 | 18 | ||
| 2 | 1:44.562 | +0.069s | 17 | |
| 3 | 1:44.574 | +0.081s | 20 | |
| 4 | 1:44.629 | +0.136s | 22 | |
| 5 | 1:44.868 | +0.375s | 22 | |
| 6 | 1:45.049 | +0.556s | 22 | |
| 7 | 1:45.099 | +0.606s | 20 | |
| 8 | 1:45.222 | +0.729s | 24 | |
| 9 | 1:45.225 | +0.732s | 21 | |
| 10 | 1:45.274 | +0.781s | 28 | |
| 11 | 1:45.447 | +0.954s | 25 | |
| 12 | 1:45.503 | +1.010s | 17 | |
| 13 | 1:45.704 | +1.211s | 19 | |
| 14 | 1:45.759 | +1.266s | 18 | |
| 15 | 1:46.179 | +1.686s | 15 | |
| 16 | 1:46.488 | +1.995s | 19 | |
| 17 | 1:46.570 | +2.077s | 21 | |
| 18 | 1 | |||
| 19 | 2 | |||
| 20 | 2 |
Grandprixnet.com 