Kimi Räikkönen has been the fastest in the first practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix of Formula 1. The Finn has shown the good feelings that Ferrari has in this circuit, with the permission of Hamilton – second.
Formula 1 returns from holidays at Spa-Francorchamps, the home Grand Prix for Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren-Honda) one of the drivers, along with Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) who has tried the Halo in the first few minutes.
Who has started leading the time-sheet was Esteban Ocon (Force India) who debuted in Formula 1 in this place a year ago with the Manor. The French set a 1:48.962 lap-time that would be clearly improved later on. In addition, the junior driver of Mercedes was the driver that more laps would complete in this session, with a total of 27 turns.
7 km lay-out is a real demand of concentration for the drivers to avoid the walls, but Massa (Williams) was unable to avoid them at Malmedy, causing the red flag.
When the green flag came back, Kevin Magnussen (Haas) saw the headrest peel off. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) was up to the top spot with a time of 1:46.656.
But it was Hamilton who led halfway through the session, setting a time two tenths faster than Ricciardo. But in Mercedes not all was going as planned, with Valtteri Bottas suffering a run off exit at Turn 13. Without this problem, the Finn was up to the top spot with a time of 1:46.424.
Then it was the local idol, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) who made the best time with a 1:46.302. Then were the Ferrari’s who jumped to the first places with the ultra-soft compound.
It was Kimi Raikkonen with a time of 1:45.502 that set the fastest time of the session, 0.053 seconds faster than Hamilton – who complete his lap with soft tires. Vettel completes the top three places. Behind them, with ultra-soft tires as well, finished the Red Bull’s.
Results:
1 Raikkonen 2 Hamilton 3 Vettel 4 Verstappen 5 Ricciardo 6 Bottas 7 Sainz 8 Ocon 9 Kvyat 10 Vandoorne 11 Palmer 12 Hulkenberg 13 Alonso 14 Pérez 15 Stroll 16 Magnussen 17 Grosjean 18 Ericsson 19 Wehrlein 20 Massa