FP1: Piastri dominates opening practice at Spa as Aston Martin excels with heavily-upgraded car
Championship leader Oscar Piastri set the benchmark time in the sole one-hour practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix, beating reigning champion Max Verstappen. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the sole one-hour practice session at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Most of the drivers used Pirelli's C1 compound for their first stint, with only a few racers - including the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda - electing to run the yellow-banded medium which is two step softer than the hard compound this weekend.
The closing stages of the sole practice session saw drivers head out with soft tyres, but the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli opted for a set of yellow-walled mediums.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri registered a 1m 42.123s before lowering that to a 1m 42.022s on his final push lap to top the session, beating reigning champion Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman was very competitive through the first and third sector, but lost almost a full second in the middle part of the track which is a consequence of Red Bull's different choice in terms of aerodynamic configuration. The Milton Keynes-based outfit elected to fit significantly less loaded rear wings on their RB21s compared to what Ferrari or McLaren opted to.
On the back of two consecutive race victories, Lando Norris claimed third, having run wide at Stavelot on his first flying lap with the soft tyres.
Using Pirelli's mediums for their qualifying simulation lap, Mercedes' George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli took fourth and sixth, respectively.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was the quickest driver after the first runs, but he was unable to replicate that on the red-walled tyres, ending up only fifth fastest. His team-mate Hamilton took seventh, having driven the upgraded Ferrari SF-25 that features a revised rear suspension configuration.
Aston Martin have brought a raft of upgrades to Spa-Francorchamps for this weekend, and Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso used that to finish P8 and P9 respectively, whilst the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar completed the top 10.
Having spent the opening stages of the session in the garage due to a fuel issue, Carlos Sainz managed to get back out on track to end up 11th fastest, followed by the Sauber pair of Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg and the second Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson.
Haas' Esteban Ocon, Alpine's Pierre Gasly, the second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman completed the order.
