The Belgian Grand Prix, round 14 of the 2024 F1 season, got under way at Spa-Francorchamps in the early evening on July 26, China Standard Time (UTC+8). It is also the final round of the first half of the season before the summer break. In Friday’s opening free practice session, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the timesheets with a 1:43.372, 0.531 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri; RB’s Yuki Tsunoda finished 16th.
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The previous eight rounds had produced six different race winners, giving the impression of a wide-open battle at the front, but the RB20 re-established a gap to its rivals in this session. Red Bull removed the upgrades introduced in Hungary and returned to the cannon-style engine cover, while Verstappen was in particularly ominous form: because of an unexpected failure at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, he has taken his fifth internal combustion engine of the season for this round and will receive a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race—but at this pace, a comeback win from 11th on the grid is hardly beyond the realms of possibility. Large sections of the circuit had been resurfaced ahead of this round, with lap speeds rising significantly as a result. Although rain made comparisons difficult, Verstappen’s FP1 benchmark was already faster than the 2022 pole lap.
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Team-mate Sergio Pérez’s situation was very different. With his seat under threat, the Mexican could never get a feel for the car through the low- and medium-speed corners, losing 0.8 seconds to Verstappen in the second sector alone and finishing seventh, 0.4 seconds behind Piastri. With a full power-unit change taking him beyond his allocation, Tsunoda is expected to start from the back of the grid. He was plagued by alternating understeer and oversteer at every corner in this session and was “completely unable to predict how the car would behave”, eventually finishing 16th, 0.614 seconds behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. RB ran the same programme for both cars this session; Tsunoda’s focus will now shift to long runs for the race.
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Ricciardo had a slide after running over the kerb at the exit of Turn 1 early in the session—the previous night’s rain had left the kerb a little damp—but fortunately avoided the barriers and set the 13th-fastest time. Alpine introduced a special “Deadpool & Wolverine” livery for this round, but only one car ran properly: Esteban Ocon completed only an out-lap with a suspected water leak, while Pierre Gasly finished 11th. Williams, traditionally well suited to Spa’s aerodynamic demands, shone again, with Alex Albon setting the third-fastest time and Logan Sargeant finishing 15th; Mercedes, which brought upgrades including a new floor, was slightly off McLaren’s pace, with George Russell fourth and Lewis Hamilton fifth, while Charles Leclerc took sixth for Ferrari.
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The second free practice session will take place at 23:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8) that evening.
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:43.372 | 23 |
| 2 | Piastri | McLaren | +0.531 | 24 |
| 3 | Albon | Williams | +0.727 | 21 |
| 4 | Russell | Mercedes | +0.853 | 23 |
| 5 | Hamilton | Mercedes | +0.907 | 21 |
| 6 | Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.934 | 25 |
| 7 | Pérez | Red Bull | +0.957 | 22 |
| 8 | Norris | McLaren | +1.043 | 24 |
| 9 | Sainz | Ferrari | +1.202 | 24 |
| 10 | Stroll | Aston Martin | +1.327 | 20 |
| 11 | Gasly | Alpine | +1.461 | 22 |
| 12 | Alonso | Aston Martin | +1.549 | 19 |
| 13 | Ricciardo | RB | +1.578 | 23 |
| 14 | Bottas | Sauber | +1.783 | 21 |
| 15 | Sargeant | Williams | +1.939 | 20 |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | +2.192 | 23 |
| 17 | Hülkenberg | Haas | +2.273 | 19 |
| 18 | Magnussen | Haas | +2.440 | 19 |
| 19 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | +2.623 | 23 |
| 20 | Ocon | Alpine | – | 1 |
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