Carlos Sainz topped the instances forward of team-mate Charles Leclerc as Ferrari delivered a powerful one-two forward of Red Bull’s world champion and sequence chief Max Verstappen in Friday’s opening follow on the Belgian Grand Prix.
PICTURES | LEWIS HAMILTON SPENDS TIME WITH GORILLAS IN RWANDA
The Spaniard clocked a finest lap in a single minute and 46.538 seconds to outpace his Monegasque associate by almost a tenth of a second.
Verstappen, who leads the title race by 80 factors, was adrift by 1.2 seconds in an intriguing session run in dry circumstances till a late downpour.
READ | LEWIS HAMILTON JOINS DENVER BRONCOS OWNERSHIP TEAM
George Russell was fourth for Mercedes in 1:47.396 forward of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Alex Albon of Williams and a revived Daniel Ricciardo who was seventh for McLaren, two days after saying his early exit from the crew later this 12 months.
Yuki Tsunoda was eighth for Alpha Tauri forward of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton within the second Mercedes and Sergio Perez, who was tenth within the second Red Bull.
The session started in dry, however overcast circumstances following main information within the morning when Audi confirmed their entry as an engine provider from 2026, anticipated to be with Sauber.
WATCH | RED BULL SET NEW PIT STOP RECORD – DON’T BLINK!
They presently race as Alfa Romeo with a Ferrari engine – although the Italian sponsor introduced additionally on Friday they’d be terminating the partnership on the finish of 2023.
After the ‘summer break’ the groups returned with improve packages, notably Mercedes and McLaren, as they eyed a continued upturn in leads to the ultimate a part of the season.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc faces a grid penalty
Once the motion started, it was quickly clear the standard suspects could be main the best way with Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc setting the early tempo and swapping locations on high of the timing screens.
An electrical challenge for Kevin Magnussen in his Haas led to a purple flag after 37 minutes and delivered a 12-minute pause earlier than heavy rain heralded the resumption of motion for the ultimate seven minutes.
The Belgian race marked not solely the return of racing after the summer season holidays, but in addition the introduction of a brand new set of controls to scale back the ‘porpoising’ that had plagued many groups within the first a part of the season.
On high of all this each Verstappen and Leclerc are going through heavy grid penalties this weekend, together with Norris and Ocon, for taking new energy unit elements for his or her vehicles.
Times from Practice 1
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:46.538 16 laps tender
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari + 0.069 16 laps tender
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull + 0.217 10 laps tender
4 George Russell Mercedes + 0.858 13 laps tender
5 Lance Stroll Aston Martin + 0.899 13 laps tender
6 Alex Albon Williams + 1.297 15 laps tender
7 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren + 1.543 14 laps tender
8 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri + 1.772 16 laps tender
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes + 1.882 10 laps medium
10 Sergio Perez Red Bull + 1.936 13 laps laborious
11 Nicholas Latifi Williams + 1.947 13 laps tender
12 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo Racing + 2.134 15 laps tender
13 Lando Norris McLaren + 2.932 15 laps tender
14 Fernando Alonso Alpine + 3.126 17 laps tender
15 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin + 3.275 12 laps medium
16 Esteban Ocon Alpine + 3.777 5 laps tender
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas + 4.444 9 laps tender
18 Mick Schumacher Haas + 4.721 15 laps tender
19 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri + 5.527 14 laps laborious
20 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Racing no time 2 laps tender
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
(*1*)
