What happened in first Belgian GP F1 practice

Valtteri Bottas topped FP1 kicking off the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa ahead of Max Verstappen, as Lewis Hamilton was almost barged off the track by Nicholas Latifi on his best flying lap.

Key moments:

> Wet session declared initially but lots of dry running

> Verstappen rapid on hard tyre early on

> Hamilton robbed of best lap by Latifi incident

> Leclerc flirts with gravel, Raikkonen and Tsunoda spin at La Source

> Raikkonen also hit the pit wall mid-session

The session was declared wet by the FIA a minute in, meaning drivers who used a set of intermediate tyres will get those back at the end of the day.

That encouraged initial laps, but not extensive running as teams looked to save the tyres for variable conditions ahead of a weekend where inclement weather is expected. Drops of rain fell late in the session, too.

Lando Norris was the first driver to venture out on slicks with 48 minutes to go, and the rest of the field soon followed on a mixture of hard and medium tyres.

Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa spinning at La Source proved the track was still a tough test – Raikkonen clipped the inside wall in the pitlane later in the session, too – but times soon tumbled as AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and then Hungary winner for Alpine Esteban Ocon topped the order for a large chunk of the session.

Raikkonen hits the wall as he enters the pit lane

Not the best start to the Finn's weekend! #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/jOuHyYBLBe

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2021

After initial running on inters with aero paint on the front left wheel to trial upgrades, Verstappen soon began his attack on the hards and went top with 31 minutes to go, and then bettered that twice to even remain ahead of a flurry of late soft-shod runners with a 1m45.905s.

Mercedes appeared to spend more time on experimenting with downforce configurations early on as both Hamilton and Bottas laid well over a second adrift before Bottas bolted on soft tyres and went to the top of the order.

Verstappen couldn’t improve in the final sector on his response lap on the softs, while Hamilton was lucky to emerge unscathed from his flying lap.

He caught Nicholas Latifi into Turn 19, the entry to the final chicane, and had a wheel alongside before Latifi shut the door on him.

A very tight moment for Latifi and Hamilton 😳#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/RBg58gl8SF

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2021

Earlier in the session, Latifi’s Williams team-mate George Russell was held up at Les Combes for which Lance Stroll was warned by his Aston Martin team over the radio.

Hamilton’s lap was good enough for only 16th (he fell to 18th later on) at the time – having set the fastest middle sector to that point – while Bottas topped the session 0.164 ahead of Verstappen.

Gasly went third for AlphaTauri, with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top five. Leclerc was lucky to avoid incident after dipping his wheels into the gravel.

Leclerc runs very wide at Turn 7 👀#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Jpv2P9mgRj

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2021

Sergio Perez had a strong run on the hards but failed to deliver a lap better than sixth on the softs – 0.928s off Red Bull team-mate Verstappen. Sebastian Vettel, Norris and the pair of Alpines rounded out the top 10.

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Ocon headed Fernando Alonso in that team-mate battle.

Lots of teams introduced new power unit components here ahead of Spa and Monza.

There are new internal combustion engines for both Mercedes, both McLarens, both AlphaTauris, Perez, Stroll, Alonso, Leclerc and Latifi. Some teams have introduced fresh MGU-Hs, MGU-Ks and turbochargers as well.

At Red Bull, Perez also has a new turbo, MGU-H and MGU-K after his terminal issue in Hungary.

Verstappen had already switched to a new power unit for the Hungary race so his power unit remains unchanged.

Practice 1 Results