F1 Belgian GP: Bottas leads Verstappen, Hamilton 18th in opening practice
Following a four-week summer break, F1’s dr❀ivers were met with cold and damp conditions at Spa-Francorchamps as heavy rain fell just before the starꦇt of FP1.
When the track dried up and the drivers switched onto slicks, it was Mercedes’ Bottas that led the way on soft tyres as he poste꧋d a 1m45.199s to end the session 0.164s clear of Verstappen’s title contending Red Bull.
Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who comes into the weekend holding an eight-point championship lead over Verstappen, was only 1🔴8th after being blocked by Nicholas Latifi’s 🐷Williams on his fastest lap.
Hamilton had just gone fastest of all in the middle sector but had to back out of his lap when he attempted to get past Latifi on the run to the Bus Stop chicane, leaving him ༒without a representative time and well down the order.
Mercedes opte👍d to split downforce levels between its two cars in FP1, with Bottas running a slimmer rear wing, while Hamil🌱ton had a high downforce set-up on his W12.
Beh♌ind Bottas - who is carrying a five-place grid penalty for causing the Turn 1 chaos at Hungary - and Verstappen came Pierre Gasly, who was ha🍒lf a second off the pace in his AlphaTauri.
Charles Leclerc survived a big moment through the gravel to put his Ferrari fourth in the timesheets ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez, who once again struggled to match the pace of ꧋Verstappen in the second Red Bull.
As⛎ton Martin’s Sebastian Vettel took seventh ahead of Lando Norris’ McLaren, while the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Aꦡlonso rounded out the rest of the top 10 order.
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