{"id":806392,"date":"2026-07-17T16:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/806392\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:03:09","slug":"what-happened-in-f1s-belgian-grand-prix-fp1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/806392\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened in F1’s Belgian Grand Prix FP1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen set the pace in opening practice at Formula 1\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix ahead of the two Ferraris.<\/p>\n

Red Bull parked its \u2018Macarena\u2019-spec rear wing for the Spa weekend after back-to-back crashes for Verstappen in Austria and Silverstone.<\/p>\n

But it made a strong start to Spa as Verstappen and team-mate Isack Hadjar took turns at leading FP1.<\/p>\n

Verstappen ultimately ended up on top with a 1m47.070s, the first time he\u2019s topped a practice session in 2026.<\/p>\n

He was 0.145s clear of his closest competition, Lewis Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari. The British GP winner Charles Leclerc was third, 0.207s off Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Hadjar, who will start from the back of the field<\/a> due to multiple engine component changes beyond his allowance, was fourth fastest ahead of Oscar Piastri\u2019s McLaren.<\/p>\n

Piastri hit drama in the closing moments of FP1 as he had to tour very slowly back to the garage, having suddenly encountered an issue on the Kemmel Straight.<\/p>\n

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was sixth fastest for Mercedes ahead of Lando Norris\u2019s McLaren, another driver facing a 10-place grid penalty<\/a> this weekend for taking a new battery.<\/p>\n

George Russell was eighth quickest ahead of the midfield leaders, Arvid Lindblad\u2019s Racing Bulls and Gabriel Bortoleto\u2019s Audi.<\/p>\n

Jak Crawford took Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin for the session and ended up with a fastest lap 6.129s off the pace, but was within four tenths of Lance Stroll’s best effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen set the pace in opening practice at Formula 1\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-806392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}