Key events
What happened in Friday’s free practice? Well, as Giles Richards reported:
… in first practice Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quickest, edging out the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc, with Antonelli in sixth and Russell in eighth. Antonelli was on top in the second session, almost two-tenths clear of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who has a 10-place grid penalty for the race but Russell once more struggled to dial in his car, finishing in eighth, over a second behind his teammate.
Here are the FP1 times:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:47.070
2 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.145s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.207s
4 Isack Hadjar Red Bull +0.252s
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.452s
6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.533s
7 Lando Norris McLaren +0.861s
8 George Russell Mercedes +0.889s
9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +1.164s
10 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +1.336s
11 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.362s
12 Nico Hülkenberg Audi +1.892s
13 Oliver Bearman Haas +1.940s
14 Alexander Albon Williams +2.267s
15 Franco Colapinto Alpine +2.333s
16 Esteban Ocon Haas +2.379s
17 Pierre Gasly Alpine +2.642s
18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +2.769s
19 Sergio Pérez Cadillac +3.156s
20 Carlos Sainz Williams +3.792s
21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +5.738s
22 Jak Crawford Aston Martin +6.129s
Jak Crawford, the reserve driver, had a run-out in place of Fernando Alonso … and picked up a pit-lane penalty. An Aston Martin speeding …
It looks as though Hamilton will be able to take part in qualifying OK, with half an hour to the off. Ferrari have been hard at work.
In addition to Norris, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the two Aston Martin drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, all face grid penalties for taking new power unit items. Given Aston Martin’s struggles, only Hadjar’s loss has any great significance; he is sent to the back of the field, for taking three elements. However, so is Alonso. If my calculations are correct, we will finish with Stroll 20th, Hadjar 21st and Alonso 22nd.
Preamble
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the most unspeakably offensive word in most of the cosmos is coincidentally also the name of a small country on Earth. Will anyone be taking Belgium’s name in vain after this weekend’s grand prix?
Well, after this morning’s final practice session, perhaps Lewis Hamilton.
For Hamilton, 2025 was one long bleep. But even if he has dropped back from second after Monaco and Barcelona – his first Ferrari win – to third in the standings, he is only seven points worse off than Russell and gained substantially on Antonelli. However, as PA reports:
Lewis Hamilton will face a race against time to take part in qualifying for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix after he crashed out of final practice.
In the final seconds on the concluding session at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton lost control of his Ferrari on the exit of Fagnes, racing through the gravel with the rear of his car thudding into the barrier.
“I have destroyed the car, mate,” said Hamilton as he came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the track.
Hamilton, unharmed in the accident, got out of his car to inspect the significant damage to the back right of his Ferrari – with his back-right wheel facing the wrong way.
Earlier in the season, it was a Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen who were getting regularly bleeped over their radios. More recently, it’s been a Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen who have been getting bleeped on their radios, the change being that the former is now Kimi Antonelli rather than George Russell. Two finishes outside the points in the past three races after five straight wins have cut the 19-year-old’s championship lead to 25, from a high of 66. His car’s manoeuvrability failure at Silverstone when closing on the lead tested his youthful vocabulary.
Life seemed to be improving for Verstappen with his second place in Austria, against a background of speculation over his Red Bull future. But the Dutchman crashing out at Silverstone had the bleep police out in force.
Even Charles Leclerc, after the horror of retiring at his home grand prix in Monaco and then 15th in Barcelona as Hamilton was coming first and second, was swearing, albeit suavely, but won for Ferrari at Silverstone.
Lando Norris, meanwhile, had his blue moments in China, along with Oscar Piastri because of McLaren’s double “did not start” with a power unit failure, followed by another problem in Japan. However Norris does in qualifying, he will start a further 10 places back, as the team have opted to take a new, improved Mercedes power unit now. McLaren explained: “We have chosen to do this in [expletive deleted], a circuit where overtaking is relatively more prevalent, as opposed to the following two events in Hungary and Zandvoort.”
According to Douglas Adams, the concept Belgium embodies “is so revolting that the publication or broadcast of the word is utterly forbidden in all parts of the Galaxy except one, where they don’t know what it means”. Join me from 2.30pm for the buildup to qualifying, then from 3pm to see who, if anyone, will today be joining Zaphod Beeblebrox in exclaiming: “Holy Belgium, man!”
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