EL1 in Belgium: Vettel ahead of Verstappen

Fitted with Soft tires, Sebastian Vettel signs a time of 1’44”358 with his SF71H. The four-time world champion is ahead of Red Bull de Max Verstappen of 0,151s under the eyes of thousands of Dutch fans who made the short journey to applaud their hero.

The Milton Keynes team is using a new fuel this weekend which is supposed to provide a slight performance gain on a demanding track for hybrid powertrains.

Mercedes, for its part, has decided to introduce the new specification of its in-house engine by also making it available to its customer teams Williams and the new Racing Point Force India entity.  

Lewis Hamilton lifts his Silver Arrow to 3rd place, 0,318s behind the mark of his rival Vettel, whom he is 24 points ahead of in the Drivers' standings. Followed by their two Finnish lieutenants, Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) in front Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes). The latter will be forced to start from the back of the grid due to the introduction of driving elements beyond the annual quotas.

Confined to the Red Bull garage for a long time due to an injector problem, Daniel Ricciardo was only able to take the track in the last three minutes. Enough to sign the 6th time under the checkered flag.

After a summer of transition in his team and while his future in F1 remains quite vague, Esteban Ocon remembers everyone fondly by setting the 7th best time on board. The French precedes the Renault de Nico Hulkenberg, who he was supposed to support in 2019 before Ricciardo pulled the rug out from under him.

Sergio Pérez confirms the good form of the pink single-seaters by setting the 9th time. Carlos Sainz completes the Top 10. Note that the Racing Point Force India and Renault drivers made their best efforts with the Super-Soft rubber. Pierre Gasly, which will pass from Toro Rosso at Red Bull next year, finished 11th.

Very lively since the start of the season in terms of competitiveness, the Haas de Romain Grosjean et Kevin Magnussen finish behind at the end of this first free ride. The Frenchman took 12th time, while his Danish teammate was only 17th.

Further afield, the grimace soup continues at the historic Williams stables and above all McLaren. For its first official outing on an F1 Grand Prix weekend, Lando Norris, which replaced Fernando Alonso this Friday morning, finished 18th. This is two ranks better than Stoffel Vandoorne, who brings up the rear for his home meeting. The Belgian, however, was only able to cover 13 laps due to a suspected leak when the McLaren reserve completed double.