F1 Belgian GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP1 & FP2
Friday's action from the 14th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
F1 concludes its latest double-header at Spa before heading into its summer break, following a dramatic McLaren 1-2 in Hungary last weekend.
First practice starts at 12:30pm BST, followed by second practice at 4pm BST.
Live Text
Leclerc finishes his lap - that's good enough only for P5.
Sainz has improved on his mediums and goes third.
Russell is sixth, behind Perez, with Stroll and Albon the only other drives of the 16 to set a time so far within a second of Verstappen.
Leclerc is about to start his first attempt on a set of softs.
Norris is on a set of softs and goes second on his first lap, 0.115s down on Verstappen.
Piastri is about to finish his lap - that's third for the Australian.
Perez can manage a time that is only 0.680s adrift of his team-mate, with Hamilton splitting the Red Bulls.
It's a set of mediums for Verstappen, who sets a 1m43.456s. That puts him ahead of Gasly and Ricciardo.
Good news for Ocon fans - the Alpine driver is on the track.
He missed almost the entire first session with a suspected water leak, but the issue has been fixed.
FP2 is go!
Verstappen is straight out of the garage.
A reminder that this is one of the longest circuits on the calendar and, therefore, the opportunity to post a lap time is reduced.
There have been issues with traffic in the support series qualifying sessions.
This session will provide a far more representative look at the weekend to come, though the slightly late start time of 5pm local may see the quali sims get under way early in the session.
McLaren was second in FP1 through Piastri, with Verstappen fastest. But will the team turn that around?
It was supposed to rain all day but, as usual when in Belgium for an F1 race, the forecast hasn't followed through.
It's dry for the upcoming hour of running.
Bruno Famin, Team Principal, Alpine F1 Team
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Some news to bring you from the break - Alpine and team principal Bruno Famin have confirmed he will step down from his position...
Hello and welcome back to coverage of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
After a short break between sessions, we are set for second practice at Spa.
And with that, it's time to leave you for a bit until FP2 gets under way. Filling the window, here is the full report from FP1. Bye!
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-belgian-gp-fp1-report-10638975/10638975/
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Practice starts are currently taking place and, with drivers completing one lengthy lap to the grid and another back to the pits, the whole procedure takes some time here.
Leclerc started his final effort a few seconds ahead of the flag dropping.
There's the chequered flag!
As we enter the final two minutes of the session, it appears that the regular teams pecking order is in place, with Sauber, Haas and RB the three backmarker teams, Aston Martin and Alpine somewhere in the middle, and Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren at the front.
Williams are the outliers, with Albon 3rd and Sargeant 15th.
"I've got to come in. The bouncing is really bad," says Hamilton. The return of porpoising!
"I have no rear end at all," reports Russell. He's fourth fastest over a single lap but, across a race distance, that would be far harder to manage.
There's a real mix of all three tyre compounds on display right now, with 16 drivers out on the track.
A small error for Hamilton at Les Combes, as he runs wide on the first part of the corner.
15 minutes remain in FP1 and we're into the long-run phase now, with a mix of soft and medium rubber on display.
On what is likely his final soft tyre push lap of the session, Alonso has climbed to 12th. Team-mate Stroll is 10th, again outperforming the Spaniard.
On Ocon, a further update from Alpine confirms: "The team continues to investigate a suspected leak on Car #31. He will not take further part in FP1.”
With the qualifying simulations out of the way, the drivers are heading back to the garages. If this was Q1, Hulkenberg, Zhou, Alonso and Magnussen would be out of the session - joining Ocon, who remains in the garage.
"I'm really struggling to know what the car is doing on [corner] entries," reports Perez. He has slipped another couple of positions to Leclerc and Albon, who is now third, in the last moments.
On his first soft tyre run, Perez goes fifth, but trails his team-mate by 0.9s. He's close to those ahead, other than Verstappen, so that will at least provide some hope.
All of Verstappen's advantage on the chasing pack is coming in the middle sector, possibly highlighting that Red Bull are running a higher downforce setup to gain time in the twisting middle sector.
An overall improvement for Verstappen, with a 1m43.372s. Piastri is second but 0.7s behind the improved benchmark from Verstappen.
A 1m44.225s for Russell puts him 0.2s clear of Verstappen, who has put in a poor sector one but a stonking sector two.
We're about to get the first indications of who has the pace this weekend, with Verstappen, Russell, Piastri and Norris all fitting the soft tyres and heading out onto an otherwise clear track.
As expected, Verstappen will take a 10-place grid drop for fitting an internal combustion engine beyond the prescribed limits, while Tsunoda will start at the back after taking a clean sweep of new parts.
It's official. Verstappen and Tusnoda will both take grid penalties after fitting new power unit components this weekend.
By: Autosport Staff
