Verstappen tops Belgian GP FP1 at Spa for Red Bull
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 17, 2026
Verstappen Leads Spa
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen set the pace in Friday's Belgian Grand Prix FP1 at Spa-Francorchamps, turning a 1m47.070s lap on soft tires in dry conditions and finishing 0.145 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc took third, and Isack Hadjar followed in fourth after he briefly climbed to the top of the timesheets early in the session on the same tire compound. Verstappen did it with Red Bull running an older rear-wing specification on the RB22, a change that gave the team an immediate read on the car's speed around Spa. The lap also carried extra weight in the wider picture of the season, because Verstappen became the first driver in a car without a Mercedes or Ferrari engine to top a practice session this year. That line on the sheet put Red Bull in control of the opening run of the weekend and gave the team a clean benchmark before the field moved deeper into setup work. The time gap to Hamilton was small, but it still marked Verstappen as the man to beat after the first session settled into a pure pace test on a dry track.
McLaren Pace Issues
McLaren's session carried speed and frustration in equal measure. Oscar Piastri ended FP1 in fifth after a hydraulic pressure issue, and the team told him to nurse the car back to the pits. Lando Norris placed seventh and will carry a 10-place grid penalty after a control electronics change, a setback that will shape his weekend before qualifying begins. Kimi Antonelli also ran near the front at one stage on soft tires, but his final position was not part of the picture at the top of the session that Verstappen, Hamilton and Leclerc controlled. George Russell finished eighth for Mercedes, and Mercedes struggled for pace across the hour, leaving the team without the kind of front-running rhythm it wanted from the opening practice run. Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top 10 and kept himself in the mix among the quickest runners. The order behind Verstappen showed how close the field still is when the track is dry and everyone gets a soft-tire run, but it also showed which teams left the session with more work to do. McLaren had one car dealing with a mechanical issue and another carrying a penalty, while Mercedes had to sort through a day that produced little comfort beyond the raw mileage.
Aston Martin Rookie Work
Aston Martin used FP1 to complete its mandatory rookie-running plan, putting Jak Crawford in Fernando Alonso’s car for the session. The run fit the wider rhythm of the day, where teams balanced headline lap times with required development work and setup checks on soft tires. Spa gave the field a clean surface to make those comparisons, and the dry weather kept the focus on performance rather than conditions. Verstappen's best lap set the target, Hamilton stayed within striking distance, Leclerc held third and Hadjar's early flash at the top gave Racing Bulls a brief moment in the spotlight before the timing sheet settled into a more familiar order. Piastri's hydraulic problem and Norris's impending grid penalty left McLaren with a mixed return. Russell's eighth and Mercedes' broader pace issues added to the sense that the front-running teams still had questions to answer before the weekend advanced. Bortoleto's top-10 finish showed steady progress in the lower part of the leading group. The session ended with Red Bull on top, Ferrari close by and several teams carrying different kinds of work into the rest of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
