F1 practice results: Max Verstappen fastest, then crashes in Spa
Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fastest on the opening day of Belgian Grand Prix practice at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday, the 12th round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, but his day ended with a crash.
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was fastest in FP1 and Verstappen pipped him in FP2, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc suffered a crash that caused a red flag.
Verstappen himself then crashed at Malmedy, damaging the right-rear corner of his car as he backed it into the tyrewall.
Belgian Grand Prix FP1 results: Bottas fastest from Verstappen
Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 18 | 1'45.199 | 239.682 | ||
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 14 | 1'45.363 | 0.164 | 0.164 | 239.309 |
3 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 20 | 1'45.699 | 0.500 | 0.336 | 238.549 |
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 19 | 1'45.818 | 0.619 | 0.119 | 238.280 |
5 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 20 | 1'45.935 | 0.736 | 0.117 | 238.017 |
6 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 17 | 1'46.127 | 0.928 | 0.192 | 237.587 |
7 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 19 | 1'46.177 | 0.978 | 0.050 | 237.475 |
8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 17 | 1'46.336 | 1.137 | 0.159 | 237.120 |
9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 16 | 1'46.497 | 1.298 | 0.161 | 236.761 |
10 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 16 | 1'46.612 | 1.413 | 0.115 | 236.506 |
11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 19 | 1'46.649 | 1.450 | 0.037 | 236.424 |
12 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 20 | 1'46.683 | 1.484 | 0.034 | 236.348 |
13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 17 | 1'46.755 | 1.556 | 0.072 | 236.189 |
14 | George Russell | Williams | 19 | 1'46.772 | 1.573 | 0.017 | 236.151 |
15 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 19 | 1'46.928 | 1.729 | 0.156 | 235.807 |
16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 20 | 1'47.101 | 1.902 | 0.173 | 235.426 |
17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 15 | 1'48.125 | 2.926 | 1.024 | 233.196 |
18 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 17 | 1'48.224 | 3.025 | 0.099 | 232.983 |
19 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 16 | 1'48.705 | 3.506 | 0.481 | 231.952 |
20 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 15 | 1'49.059 | 3.860 | 0.354 | 231.199 |
View full results |
What happened in Free Practice 1?
After a rain-affected start to the session, Verstappen set the benchmark fastest time on hard-compound dry tyres halfway through at 1m46.879s and then lowered that to 1m46.423s and 1m45.905s on his long run. That put him over a second clear with 20 minutes remaining.
The soft-tyre runs were topped by Bottas, who set 1m45.199s to take away P1. Teammate Hamilton, meanwhile, hit traffic on his flying lap – almost being swiped off the track by Nicholas Latifi’s Williams on the approach to the Bus Stop chicane. Mercedes was back-to-back testing high and low downforce rear wings, and Hamilton complained he was “massively slow on the straights” using a larger wing – and he ended the session down in 18th.
Verstappen took P2 with 1m45.363s and was fastest overall through the middle sector but seemed to struggle through the final chicane.
Pierre Gasly took third for AlphaTauri, exactly half a second off Bottas’s pace, ahead of Leclerc, who almost fenced his Ferrari at Malmedy after a gravelly off. His teammate Carlos Sainz was fifth, ahead of the recently re-signed Sergio Perez (Red Bull).
One bizarre incident was Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen hitting the inside wall of the pitlane entry – “my bad” he admitted of damaging the left side of his car.
Belgian Grand Prix FP2 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas
Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 12 | 1'44.472 | 241.350 | ||
2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 14 | 1'44.513 | 0.041 | 0.041 | 241.256 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 13 | 1'44.544 | 0.072 | 0.031 | 241.184 |
4 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 15 | 1'44.953 | 0.481 | 0.409 | 240.244 |
5 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 17 | 1'44.965 | 0.493 | 0.012 | 240.217 |
6 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 14 | 1'45.180 | 0.708 | 0.215 | 239.726 |
7 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 15 | 1'45.302 | 0.830 | 0.122 | 239.448 |
8 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 16 | 1'45.336 | 0.864 | 0.034 | 239.371 |
9 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 18 | 1'45.386 | 0.914 | 0.050 | 239.257 |
10 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 13 | 1'45.404 | 0.932 | 0.018 | 239.216 |
11 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 14 | 1'45.517 | 1.045 | 0.113 | 238.960 |
12 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 17 | 1'45.758 | 1.286 | 0.241 | 238.416 |
13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 16 | 1'45.789 | 1.317 | 0.031 | 238.346 |
14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 18 | 1'45.967 | 1.495 | 0.178 | 237.945 |
15 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 14 | 1'46.118 | 1.646 | 0.151 | 237.607 |
16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 17 | 1'46.198 | 1.726 | 0.080 | 237.428 |
17 | George Russell | Williams | 14 | 1'46.665 | 2.193 | 0.467 | 236.388 |
18 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 13 | 1'46.836 | 2.364 | 0.171 | 236.010 |
19 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 14 | 1'47.335 | 2.863 | 0.499 | 234.913 |
20 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 15 | 1'47.529 | 3.057 | 0.194 | 234.489 |
View full results |
What happened in Free Practice 2?
After rain between the sessions, FP2 began on a damp track that was drying quickly.
Bottas set the pace on medium tyres after 20 minutes with a laptime of 1m44.513s, 0.614s faster than Verstappen, then Hamilton took P2 on 1m44.544s – 0.031s off his teammate. Verstappen improved on his second flyer, getting to within 0.084s of the pace – also on mediums.
Mercedes switched to the softs in time for the halfway point, with Hamilton not improving despite setting the fastest middle sector overall and Bottas also failed to beat his earlier time as Mercedes appeared to have its engines turned down.
Verstappen then unleashed 1m44.472s on softs to beat Bottas by 0.041s and Hamilton by 0.072s.
Recently re-signed Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest for Alpine on softs, albeit almost half a second off the pace. Hungarian GP-winning teammate Esteban Ocon suffered a huge spin at Fagnes without hitting anything.
The session was first halted with 15 minutes to go when Leclerc got sideways at Les Combes and couldn’t keep it out of the wall on the left-hand side, swiping off a front corner.
Soon after the session restarted, it required another red flag as Verstappen lost it at Malmedy and clipped the barrier with his right-rear corner. That incident ended the day’s running.
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