Oscar Piastri’s opening day of practice for the Belgian Grand Prix was curtailed by a mechanical problem that forced his McLaren team to replace his gearbox.
Piastri sat out the final minutes of opening practice as the team worked to diagnose the problem, which turned out to be a hydraulic leak in his gearbox. The mechanics then went to work fitting the spare.
Oscar Piastri missed a stack of track time after his McLaren was beset by mechanical gremlins. Getty Images
The massive amount of work required to replace the gearbox meant he also watched the first 20 minutes of the second practice session from the garage.
The Aussie’s practice session was further hampered by a lengthy red flag after Pierre Gasly crashed his Alpine with just under 15 minutes remaining.
Piastri still managed to end the day sixth-fastest, albeit nearly a second behind the Mercedes of championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
“Overall, it has been a reasonable day … thank you to them for working through to get (the gearbox) sorted,” Piastri said.
“We made good progress in practice two, and our pace is looking reasonable.
“We are heading in the right direction, and we are in a good place to build on that in practice three tomorrow and into qualifying.”
Teammate Lando Norris was second-fastest, just under two tenths slower. Norris has a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race hanging over his head after the team were forced to install a fourth new battery of the season for this weekend’s race. Teams are only allowed to use three before incurring penalties.
The McLaren team bought a new rear wing to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, which is nestled in the Ardennes Forest. Technical director Neil Houldey said the wing performed “as we hoped”.
Earlier, four-time world champion Max Verstappen set the pace in the opening session. Red Bull has reverted back to a previous rear wing for this weekend, after their version of Ferrari‘s ‘Macarena’ wing that rotated 180 degrees caused him to crash twice in the previous two race weekends.
The mechanics at Alpine will no doubt have had a busy night after Gasly ripped the right-rear wheel off his car in a heavy crash in second practice.
The Alpine of Pierre Gasly crashed heavily during second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix. F1
Gasly’s car wobbled on a kerb on corner-exit, and the Frenchman counter-steered to catch the wobble. But the car then gripped up and spat him into the wall on driver’s right.
Cameras caught Gasly talking to his team back in the pits only minutes later.
After a slow start to the day, Antonelli and Mercedes found their rhythm and shot to the top of the time sheets.
The day after the British Grand Prix, the 19-year-old was spotted in the Royal Box at Wimbledon with tennis legend Roger Federer.
Kimi Antonelli and Roger Federer in the Royal Box at Wimbledon the day after the British Grand Prix. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth
Antonelli is in the midst of a points slump, having failed to score in two of the last three grands prix.
He suffered an engine failure in Barcelona, but bounced back to finish third in Austria. Then at Silverstone, his car suffered a bizarre bodywork failure that caused him to repeatedly run off the track, which then earned him a post-race time penalty. He was classified 15th in the final results.
The Italian said Federer offered him advice about pressure and how to keep a level head.
“He just told me to really focus one race at a time, just focus on what you can control, and also to control the emotions, especially the ones that can make you do mistakes,” Antonelli said.
“Those were the main pieces of advice. Other than that, it was an incredible experience to witness.”
Drivers have one more hour-long practice session on Saturday evening (AEST) before qualifying begins at midnight.
The race gets underway at 11pm on Sunday night.