Verstappen Fastest in Spa Opening Practice

Image Source: XPB Images

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing top the opening Free Practice session at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. The flying Dutchman sent an early warning sign for his rivals despite facing a 10 - place grid penalty for a component change for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Verstappen set the timesheets alight at the Spa Francorchamps Circuit with a 1.43.372s on the soft tyre. The blistering time was over half a second ahead of his closest competitor, Oscar Piastri.

The 60-minute session began in mixed conditions, with areas of the seven-kilometre circuit still damp from the earlier morning shower that hit the track. The conditions caught out Aussie Daniel Ricciardo in the opening minutes, spinning on the exit of La Source, narrowly avoiding the wall.

The middle of the session saw early one-lap runs, seeing Verstappen set the pace, but it was Williams’ Alexander Albon that shocked, finishing the session third overall. The Thai driver set an amazing lap to place his inferior FW46 ahead of the two Mercedes and Ferraris despite being 0.727s off Verstappen’s leading pace.

Despite bringing a flurry of new upgrades to the Grand Prix weekend, Mercedes found themselves fourth and fifth respectively. The German manufacturer still has pace to achieve in the new package, but knows there’s still work to be done to close in on the leading McLaren and Red Bull teams.

After claiming a point in last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Aston Martin was left scratching their heads after Free Practice 1. Lance Stroll led the team’s pace with 10th, but it was two-time world champion Fernando Alonso who was expressing his concerns with the straight-line speed and significant time loss. The Spaniard was 12th overall at the end of the session, 1.5 seconds off the leading time.

Yuki Tsunoda spent his session focusing on his race set-up for Sunday as the Japanese driver is set to start from the rear of the grid after Visa Cash App confirmed a complete Power Unit change. Similar to Verstappen and Red Bull, VCarb believes Spa provides the best opportunity to take the penalty as the track provides the best opportunity to fight back through the pack.

Alpine and Esteban Ocon had a session to forget in their new Deadpool-inspired livery as the Frenchman faced a water leak. This Mechanical issue restricted the 27-year-old to the garage, with only one out-lap to his name.

Image Source: XPB Images