Mercedes driver Valtteri bottas has set the pace by recording the fastest lap in the First Practice session of the Belgium grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
Valtteri recorded the fastest time of 1m 44.493 seconds by narrowly beating his teammate Lewis Hamilton by a 0.069 second gap claiming P1. Hamilton recorded a lap time of 1m 44.562 seconds.
Verstappen had set the initial pace in the morning at the Spa on medium tyres, but Bottas immediately jumped to position 1 in the standings after switching to the soft Pirellis. The redbull driver recorded a lap time of 1m 44.574 seconds just 0.081 seconds shy of Valtteri’s time after changing to soft tyres.
Bottas had experienced a front left puncture as the practice session was coming to end but he was able to pit.
Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez had equally the best moments at the Spa Practice 1 as Perez took 4th and Stroll taking 5th recording lap times of 1m 44.629 seconds and 1m 44.868 seconds respectively which was a good performance for Racing Point.
Alexander Albon finished 6th having about half a second gap between him and his teammate Max Verstappen.
Esteban Ocon in his Renault finished seventh as his teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth in the practice session leaving a gap of 0.126 seconds between the drivers.
Carlos Sainz finished the session eighth while his partner Lando Norris ranked 10th in their Mclaren cars.
Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly ended the session at 11th and 12th respectively after recording their fastest lap times on the medium compound tyres, though, through the earlier stages of the session Gasly was provoked by Mclaren’s Lando Norris holding him off on the track around Stavelot but the race stewards failed to note the incident.
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkoned ended up 13th after his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi suffering a technical issue limiting him to only two practice laps.
The Ferrari duo, Leclerc and Vettel ended 14th and 15th after struggling with their SF1000 cars which were losing power along the straights .
Latiffi and Russel ranked 16th and 17th respectively in their Williams FW43 cars while the Haas team experienced problems with their cars. Romain Grosjean experienced a loss of power in the early stages of the practice session, the same problem which affected Kevin Magnussen’s car prompting engine removal.
