Red Bull surprised by dominating the first free practice of the Belgian Grand Prix, held at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
The Milton Keynes team had one of its drivers in front for almost the entire session before Max Verstappen set the best time with 1m47s070.
The Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc managed to break Red Bull’s 1-2 by lapping in 1m47s215 and 1m47s277, respectively, which left Isack Hadjar fourth, 0s252 behind his teammate.
Oscar Piastri finished fifth as the best McLaren with 1m47s522, followed by Kimi Antonelli as the best Mercedes, while their teammates were just behind, with Lando Norris seventh and George Russell eighth, both eight tenths from the top.
Arvid Lindblad was best of the rest for Racing Bulls, placing ninth with a time of 1m48s234, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto, who completed the top 10 in his Audi.
Franco Colapinto finished in 15th position with a personal best time of 1m49s403, with Sergio Pérez in 19th place with 1m50s226.
This is how FP1 of the Belgian F1 GP developed:
The Formula 1 weekend at Spa-Francorchamps got underway under partly cloudy skies and just a 20% chance of rain during the first practice, where the medium tires – Pirelli’s C3 compound here – were the ones chosen by the majority to start the session.
After the opening minutes, Red Bull enjoyed a partial 1-2, with Hadjar in front with 1m48s918, three tenths ahead of Verstappen, with the peculiarity for the Frenchman that he was the only one to have chosen soft rubber to start the day.
Franco Colapinto, Alpine, during FP1 at Spa-Francorchamps.
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Colapinto started with a lap of 1m52s738 before improving to 1m51s223 to momentarily get into the top 10, while Checo Pérez did it with 1m52s734 and then lowered his mark to 1m52s031, which was 14th. The two Latin Americans were wearing hard C2 compound tires.
Verstappen took first place with a 1m48s237s and then improved it further to 1m47s859s, but Hadjar again overtook the four-time champion by lapping in 1m47s778s to return to the top by 0s081s, with Hamilton, third, more than half a second behind.
Shortly after entering the second half hour of training, the soft tires began to be seen on the track, with which Antonelli went from tenth to first with a lap of 1m47s603s. For his part, Russell was fourth, 0s356 behind his teammate.
The Red Bulls maintained their good performance and went 1-2 again, this time with Verstappen in front with 1m47s070 on the soft tires, being two and a half tenths faster than Hadjar.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls Team
Photo by: Andy Hone/LAT Images via Getty Images
Leclerc advanced to third position, but four tenths behind Verstappen, while Hamilton was fifth, six tenths off the top with the other Ferrari, but the seven-time champion then placed second with a lap of 1m47s215, while Leclerc improved to 1m47s277.
Checo Pérez set a lap of 1m50s226 with the soft tires that left him 16th in the order, before dropping a couple of positions.
Colapinto reported a lack of power during his stint on the hard rubber and then spent several minutes in the Alpine garage before returning to the track to install the soft tires with less than 15 minutes remaining.
The Argentine achieved a lap of 1m49s403 to provisionally place 14th, just ahead of Pierre Gasly, although he subsequently lost a position and finished 15th, with a final stage in which he could not improve what he had done with the C2 compound.
Piastri had a hydraulic pressure failure in the final minutes of the session, but managed to make it to the McLaren garage.
Formula 1 – Belgian GP 
– 1st Practice
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