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REPORT: Valtteri Bottas fastest in FP1 at the Belgian Grand Prix
- Toby McLuskie
Valtteri Bottas was the fastest in the first practice session of the weekend, claiming the first session of the race weekend in Belgium after the Summer Break. The Finn's 1:45.199 lap time was enough to finish ahead of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly in second and third respectively.
Red Bull have edge over Mercedes in FP1
Despite not having the fastest time in the session, Red Bull did seem to have the edge over, their arch-nemesis, Mercedes in the first session at Spa. Verstappen headed the timing charts for the majority of FP1 but was doing it on hard tyres. Bottas, however, switched to soft tyres before setting his and the fastest lap of the hour practice session. Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez was able to find himself in the top six come to the end of FP1 but did find himself struggling to match the times of his Red Bull partner. The Mexican finished 0.928 seconds behind Verstappen and in sixth place. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton was unable to find any pace at all. The seven-time World Champion finished down in 18th, 3.025 seconds behind his teammate. He was able to find some speed towards the end of the session when he switched to soft tyres but got blocked by Nicholas Latifi in the final sector. He had to back out and lost a large chunk of time.
Ferrari and Gasly lead midfield battle
It was a superb session for Pierre Gasly and the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, as they all found themselves in the top five. The Frenchman finished only 0.500 seconds behind Bottas and only 0.336 seconds behind Verstappen, proving that the AlphaTauri does have the pace to compete in the midfield this weekend. As for Ferrari, the session couldn't have gone much better. Leclerc edged ahead of his teammate towards the end of the session, despite dipping his tyres into the gravel trap at turn seven with just minutes to go. As for the rest of the midfield, all six drivers from McLaren, Alpine and Aston Martin finished from seventh to 12th place. Alpine were the only team to have both drivers in the top 10 with Esteban Ocon finishing in ninth and Fernando Alonso in 10th. However, the Hungarian Grand Prix winner found himself at the top of the timings charts throughout the session. Sebastian Vettel finished in P7, Lando Norris in P8, Lance Stroll in P11 and Daniel Ricciardo in P12.