The proclaimed 'King of Spa' Kimi Raikkonen led up to that name as he topped Practice 1 for the Belgian Grand Prix, but it was the pace of Lewis Hamilton that caught the eye as the Formula 1 season resumed following the summer break.
The Finn would set a 1m45.502s on the Ultrasoft tyres with around five minutes to, a full second clear of last year’s pole time as the 2017 cars made their presence felt, but the Mercedes driver would be less than a tenth of a second behind the Ferrari using the Soft compound which is two steps harder.
Sebastian Vettel would be a further tenth behind his main championship rival but also on the fastest tyre in third. The two Red Bulls tested different downforce levels as they look to counteract a lack of power down the straights but the difference would be minimal as Max Verstappen led teammate Daniel Ricciardo by just half a tenth in fourth and fifth albeit eight-tenths off the ultimate pace and on the same tyres as Ferrari.
Valtteri Bottas escaped a strange moment as he slid into the gravel at the Fagnes chicane and damaged his front wing against the barrier as he got out of the way of another car on an in-lap. That interruption meant he was down in sixth almost a second off the pace.
It was an eventful start to the session as, after just 15 minutes, Felipe Massa, returning to Williams after missing the Hungarian Grand Prix through illness, would unbalance the car on the inside kerb at Malmedy sliding into the wall on the outside during his first timed lap and causing a 10-minute red flag period.
Following the restart, after the red flag, the action calmed down as the drivers evaluated tyres and set-up. Optimising both is going to be a significant factor this weekend with Pirelli opting for an aggressive approach with the three softest compounds around the high-speed layout.
There has been quite a spread in the number of each tyre the teams have brought and that played out in Practice 1 with Mercedes, who have been more conservative with just six sets of Ultrasoft, sticking to the Supersoft and Soft compound throughout, showing good pace, while Red Bull only used the purple-marked Ultrasoft as they have nine sets at their disposal.
Ferrari used all three compounds between both cars as Raikkonen ran the Supersoft and later the Ultrasoft while Vettel used the Soft early before following his teammate for the final 40 minutes. The Scuderia also limited their running to just 13 laps each in an effort to save engine mileage.
The same applied throughout the grid as Toro Rosso used the Ultrasoft to set their best times and, as a result, Carlos Sainz was the leading midfield car in seventh with Daniil Kvyat ninth.
Esteban Ocon completed the most laps of anyone with 27 and would be eighth with the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne, who will take a 35-place grid drop at his home Grand Prix, completing the top 10.
The two Renault’s came next in 11th and 12th as Jolyon Palmer, who has vowed to battle for his future over the final nine races, marginally ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso suffered an engine problem on his installation lap and would crawl back to the pits, that would be repaired before a later DRS problem also interfered with his running and left him down in 13th.
Sergio Perez was 14th in the second Force India, with Lance Stroll the sole running Williams after Massa's crash in 15th. Typically, the field spread is usually a little larger due to Spa being the longest circuit on the calendar but 1.2 seconds would cover Sainz in seventh to the two Haas drivers of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in 16th and 17th.
The two Sauber's were way off the pace as Marcus Ericsson was 1.5 seconds slower than the Haas' in 18th while Pascal Wehrlein was limited by an ERS issue early on, eventually completing 13 laps in 19th and last of those to set a time.