EL1 – Vettel takes a Ferrari double, Hamilton in difficulty at Spa

The summer break seems to have benefited the Team Ferrari. For the first free practice sessions at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) this Friday August 30, Sebastian Vettel et Charles Leclerc signed the best times, and left the rest of the peloton by a comfortable margin.

In this hour and a half session, the four-time world champion beat his Monegasque teammate by 214 thousandths. Behind, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) is relegated to almost a second. His new colleague Alexander albon acclimatized well to the environment of the powerful Taurus with the fourth time.

Surprise, surprise. Albon was quite fast! #F1 #belgianGP pic.twitter.com/f1KSMqpShU

— Spa-Francorchamps (@circuitspa) August 30

The pair of Mercedes is ranked fifth and sixth. In the ranks of the Silver Arrows, several alerts sounded near the box. Lewis Hamilton. The Briton first dealt with an accelerator pedal problem, before his garage no longer received any data. 

Called back to his stand, the wearer of number 44 then drove aggressively, resulting in excursions into the asphalt areas. Another pilot (slightly) in difficulty, Lance stroll (Racing Point) had the unpleasant surprise of tearing off part of the engine cover!

It was lift-off after the summer break for the drivers in FP1 at Spa

And lift-off for Lance Stroll's engine cover too #F1 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/Ins2Zdqiem

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 30

The Quebecer is, however, well ranked given his equipment in seventh place. The two Racing Points also appear in the top 10. Only one Renault is present in this first half of the table, that of Daniel Ricciardo (8e). 

The French were discreet. Romain Grosjean (Haas) is only 14th but did better than his teammate Kevin Magnussen (16th). As for Pierre Gasly, he endeavored to regain his bearings aboard the Toro Rosso (18th). As usual, the Williams bring up the rear.

Free Practice 2 will begin at 15 p.m. Friday afternoon. 

2019 Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Results: