Live text
Formula 1
Belgian GP
F1 Belgian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Minute-by-minute updates of Formula 1 Friday practice at Spa-Francorchamps
Live Standings
presented by
Stopped
Summary
Live Text
Sort by
Oldest first
Oldest first
Newest first
Hamilton is running a bigger rear wing compared to Bottas, while the Red Bulls have been running skinnier wings.
Raikkonen has clouted the wall on the entry to pit lane. He makes it to his Alfa Romeo garage for repairs.
Verstappen goes even faster. He dips into the 1m45s with a 1m45.905s. The Red Bull driver is sending some messages here. Rapid pace.
Verstappen is 1.2s quicker than nearest rival Perez now. Can anyone get near Max?
Latifi jumps to P2 in the Williams now with a 1m47.101s. Decent effort that.
Verstappen, Latifi, Perez, Sainz and Ocon is your top five, which is covered by 1.5s. Big field spread at the moment.
Just 20 minutes remaining in the session now.
Hamilton has completed 12 laps but his best so far is only good enough for P15.
Stroll now pops his Aston Martin into P2 with a 1m46.867s. Ricciardo now eclipses that in the McLaren.
Vettel to P2 with an impressive 1m46.177s. He is only 0.272s slower than Verstappen.
A flurry of quick times are coming as drivers opt for soft tyre runs. Sainz almost beats Verstappen with 1m45.935s effort.
Bottas is on a flyer on softs, he goes purple in Sector 1.
Bottas to the top with a 1m45.199s.
Verstappen is back out on track.
It is pertinent to mention that Verstappen's personal best was on the hard tyres which just shows how strong his pace has been.
Hamilton the softs goes purple in Sector 2 before backing out of his lap at the final corner. He stays P16.
Verstappen improves but stays P2 with a 1m45.496s.
There are some dark clouds rolling in here. Rain on the horizon it looks.
Leclerc runs wide at Turn 7 and is lucky to avoid a big moment as he kicks up the gravel from the new track hazard.
Gasly has moved to P3 ahead of Sainz. They join Bottas and Verstappen in the 1m45s bracket.
Leclerc's moment has left plenty of gravel on the track.
Verstappen improves again on the softs but he is 0.164s shy of Bottas.
Leclerc has moved up to P4.
Hamilton is in the pits. he remains in P18 but his pace is better than that as we saw on that lap he backed out of.
Just as we type that, Hamilton has left the pit lane.
Only three minutes left in the session.
It is raining in the pit lane.
A few practice starts going on now.
Chequered flag is out for FP1.
Bottas tops FP1 for Mercedes with a 1m45.199s. The time set on the soft compound tyres.
Verstappen was impressive throughout for Red Bull, particularly on the hard tyres. He ends the session P2, 0.164s shy of Bottas.
AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly ended up in P3 ahead of the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz in fourth and fifth.
The top 10 is completed by Perez (Red Bull), Vettel (Aston Martin), Norris (McLaren), Ocon (Alpine) and Alonso (Alpine).
Hamilton ended the session in P18 but the championship leader displayed way more pace, but elected to back out of his push lap on softs at the final corner, having set a purple Sector 2.
The F1 Belgian Grand Prix action continues this afternoon with FP2 scheduled for 2pm BST.
Breaking news
Good afternoon all! It has been a busy break between the two practice sessions with some big breaking news: Sergio Perez will remain at Red Bull in 2022 after his contract was extended. Here's the full story.
Breaking news
While the remainder of the 2021 F1 calendar is quickly changing, with Mugello emerging as an option if the Turkish GP is unable to take place.
That is all to come in the future, but let's focus on the here and now. Another one-hour F1 practice session is a few minutes away at Spa-Francorchamps, with conditions looking tricky - to put it mildly.
Rain
The track has been declared wet for this session following a rain shower during the break. The chance of further rain in FP2 is 60% but so far it is just cloudy and damp.
Published:
Page:
