Less than a tenth of a second covered both Mercedes’ and Max Verstappen in a subdued first practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.
On a cool and cloudy morning in the Ardennes Forest, the action often matched the serene surroundings at Spa-Francorchamps, but when the drivers did head out the times were incredibly close.
Birthday boy Valtteri Bottas set the pace with a 1m44.493s for Mercedes, 0.069s clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton in second.
Verstappen though is very much in the mix at this early stage, just 0.081s back in third, as the pace of the Red Bull in the middle sector was enough to counter the losses on the straights at the start and end of the lap.
Also very much in the frame are Racing Point, who have always specialised at Spa under their various guises.
Sergio Perez was just over a tenth behind Bottas in fourth, while Lance Stroll was two-tenths further back in fifth.
Alex Albon, who marks a year since his promotion to Red Bull at this race in 2019, was half a second off the leading pace in sixth.
The two Renaults and two McLaren’s rounded out the top 10 with less than two-tenths covering the four cars.
Highlighting how subdued the morning was, the only moments of note saw a close call between Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly exiting Stavelot, as the Briton was caught napping on the racing line.
Also, Bottas’ session was brought to a slightly early end after Mercedes reported a slow puncture on his front-left tyre.
Outside the top 10, it was a bad morning for any team linked with Ferrari.
Both Haas cars and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi completed just five laps between them before engine issues confined them all to the garage.
On the track, Kimi Raikkonen was the lead driver powered by the Italian team in 13th, ahead of both works cars as Charles Leclerc was 14th, four-tenths clear of Sebastian Vettel in 15th.
In fact, only the two Williams’ of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi were slower than the Prancing Horses in FP1.
Full results from Practice 1 can be seen below:
