The summer brake is over! The weather was dry and warm today in Spa, with track temperatures peaking at 40 degrees during the afternoon. The circuit was in good condition. As is often the case in Belgium, there was a big difference in track temperature between the morning and afternoon sessions.
Similar to last year both Ferraris were fastest in every session today. The team topped both FP1 and FP2 with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc respectively. The difference between the medium and soft compounds, which will be used predominantly in the race, is around a second per lap. The hard compound wasn't used much today so it's difficult to predict the gap accurately, but we estimate it to be in the region of 1.5 seconds.
Usually, there is quite a lot of residual rubber put down by the Spa 24 Hours, held last month. With the 24-hour race having been held under a lot of rain though (which even led to a lengthy stoppage) there was little rubber on the Ardenne track. No blistering or graining was seen throughout the day, on one of the most abrasive surfaces in the entire championship.
So how did the drivers experience their this first day at the office after their summer vacation? In order of the FP2 results we summed up the drivers comments after the first day of practice in Belgium.
Scuderia Ferrari
Charles Leclerc
“It was quite a good first day for us after the holidays. I really like this circuit and enjoy driving here. The track is quite long, has all types of corners and there’s a very unique flow to it. Despite our good positions in free practice, we do have to stay realistic and expect our rivals to be very competitive tomorrow.
Our qualifying pace was strong today, but we still have some work ahead of us in improving it over the long runs. If we are quick on the straights, we will hopefully have some good opportunities for overtaking on Sunday, which is a positive. The last few Grands Prix have been great, with a lot of battles, so I hope that this race will be another exciting one.”
Sebastian Vettel
“It was a positive day and it’s great to be back in the car, especially at a track like this. The feeling from the cockpit was good, but I think there is still room for improvement. Let’s not forget it’s only Friday and it will only get serious tomorrow afternoon and then Sunday when it matters.
On a quick lap, the performance was okay, but the race is not just one lap and so we have to work on improving our race pace, especially in the second sector. In today’s two sessions, we were sliding a bit too much in the middle sector and so for the race it will be important to optimise the tyre behaviour. We still have work to do tomorrow.”
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport
Valtteri Bottas
"It’s nice to be back in the car especially on a track like this, I had fun out there today. We got through our programme as planned, finding small gains as the day went on; it was pretty much business at usual on Friday.
We always knew coming here that Ferrari and Red Bull would be quick on this track, but Ferrari have been particularly strong on the straights today. We’ll push hard overnight, trying to find every bit of performance we can for tomorrow. We need to make a big step if we want to battle with them, but at least we made some decent gains from FP1 to FP2."
Lewis Hamilton
"It was obviously not a great start for us in FP1, we had a problem with the throttle pedal, I basically lost power and was idling. I managed to fix it with a couple of switch changes and got the car back to the garage, but when I went out we had another issue. It was a bit of a mess, but we got some laps in towards the end.
We made some changes for FP2 and the car was feeling a lot better, but we still have work to do tonight. The Ferraris are particularly strong in the first sector, we gain some time back in the middle, and I think it looks quite close between us in sector three. They have been strong on the straights all year long, so I had a feeling this weekend might work really well for them. We will have to find a way to apply the pressure this weekend, if we don’t have it on pure pace."
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team
Sergio Pérez
“We are still investigating the problem at the end of second practice, but it looks like a drop in oil pressure which killed the engine. Hopefully it won’t impact on the rest of the weekend too much, but we need to wait and see if anything is damaged and needs to be changed.
Up until that point, things were looking good. The car was strong in both sessions and the new parts we introduced here made an immediate difference. There are still lots of areas to improve before tomorrow, but I’m feeling positive.”
Lance Stroll
“Today was one of the better Fridays we have had this season so that is promising. We did some consistent running and the pace of the car is looking good, which is what we expected here in Spa. We suffered some heat transfer issues behind my seat so we will look into that overnight but overall I am feeling positive.
It is a shame we have an engine penalty but it is what it is. We will do what we can in Qualifying but the focus is going to be on setting the car up for Sunday and then trying to pass as many cars as possible to score some points! I’m looking forward to it and confident we can have a good rest of the weekend.”
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen
“The car felt pretty good today, especially the balance in FP2 and we are quite competitive in the second sector. We ran a slightly lower power mode on my side of the garage which lost us lap time, especially around such a long circuit, but tomorrow we should be back to normal and there is no point in risking anything on a Friday.
It will be hard to beat Ferrari around here as they are super fast but that is no surprise as this track definitely suits them better than us. We should be closer to Mercedes tomorrow and we will see what we can do from there. We still have a bit of work to do but in general I was quite happy with how the car was behaving.”
Alexander Albon
“Today was exciting, a bit like your first day at school, and it felt pretty good. I kept it on the black stuff and I’m enjoying it. I’m just trying to take it slowly, get as many laps as I can and understand the car as I’m still learning. There are obviously differences from Toro Rosso so I’m trying to adapt as quickly as possible,
I can see it’s a nice car to drive and it’s quick, now I just need to get used to it. In the morning, FP1 was pretty good, it was just baby steps really, then in the afternoon we focused more on long runs as with the penalty, our focus isn’t so much on short run pace but more on Sunday. The Team have been very kind to me and so I feel quite at home with the guys. I don’t have any expectations or a finishing goal, I just want to do a good job for Sunday.”
Alfa Romeo Racing
Kimi Raikkonen
“Thanks for asking about my leg: It’s okay. Beside this I’m not overly happy with today.
The lap time is okay, but we have a lot of work to do with the set up of the car and I really believe, if we get the balance right we can improve tomorrow.”
Antonio Giovinazzi
“It was difficult to put everything together today. The potential of the car is there but I feel we couldn’t unlock it to the fullest. However, tomorrow is when it matters.
We have to focus on improving ahead of qualifying and do the best possible job in the rest of the weekend. Our aim remains to get a good spot on the grid.”
Renault F1 Team
Daniel Ricciardo
“It was a pretty good day and it’s nice to get back into it. The break didn’t feel too long and everything felt very normal on a whole. We were in the top ten for both sessions, so I think we’ve started on the right foot, but we have a little bit more to find.
We probably didn’t make as much progress as we’d have liked in the afternoon. We’re there, with just a few bits and pieces to work on. Other than that, the track’s good, the weather is good and we’ll see what happens.”
Nico Hulkenberg
“Our morning was decent and the afternoon started okay, but this afternoon was a bit strange. The car seemed to get worse throughout FP2 on the Soft tyre runs so we need to investigate why.
We have some work to do on short and long runs, but we’re getting ourselves back into the routine of a race weekend again. Nevertheless, it’s nice to be in the car after the break at this great track.”
McLaren F1 Team
Carlos Sainz
“I think it’s been a mixed Friday. During FP1 I was quite encouraged by how the car felt and how the session went. In terms of lap-time, we were looking okay and the behaviour of the car was decent. FP2 was definitely more challenging.
We faced issues with car balance and overall car grip. We need to look carefully into what happened in order to find a bit of lap-time for tomorrow. The target always has to be Q3, so let's see if we can get back in.”
Lando Norris
“The day was good, we did the things we needed to do. The car seemed to change quite a bit from FP1 to FP2, which is something that we weren’t quite expecting. Also, pace-wise we’re struggling a little bit as well, compared to some of the other guys, so there is plenty to look at overnight.
A good day in terms of what we were doing ourselves but, in terms of pace, we have a bit to catch up on. We’ll work hard tonight and come up with some good ideas for tomorrow.”
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
Romain Grosjean
“It was alright. Surprisingly, my first run of the day I was happy with the balance of the car. After we started to remove downforce things got a bit more fruity. That’s obviously always going to be the game at Spa, being fast on the straights, then getting the corners as good as you can. We’re just evaluating which downforce we’re going to run for the weekend.
We’re working really hard to find out what we can do better for the future. I hadn’t run the Hockenheim package until today, and it’s better than the Barcelona one – so my confidence came back up on that package, which is good. It’s very low downforce here though, so it’s always going to be quite complicated.”
Kevin Magnussen
“It was a bit of a difficult day, definitely not the best Friday we’ve had in a while. We’re really lacking pace and just struggling with the car and the handling. So, we’ll see if we can fix it, or fix some of it, but it’s been a tough start to the weekend. We’re going to do our best to come back.
This is a difficult track to get the downforce levels right, it’s also very difficult for us to make the tires work – that adds another element to our decisions on the aero and the rest of the set-up. If your tires aren’t working, that’s the most important, and they’re not. We need to see if we can fix it. We also didn’t get out for proper long runs today, so there’s more to learn there. Fingers crossed we’ll have a better day tomorrow.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda
Daniil Kvyat
“It’s great to be back in the car after the summer break and Spa is the perfect track to return to racing as well. With quite a few other drivers taking grid penalties, the race should be quite interesting as some drivers will be out of position.
We’ll see how tomorrow goes. This kind of track can either be quite good or quite poor and at the moment, it’s quite poor for us. Today our car wasn’t suited to this track as well as it is to some others. We will see what we can find for tomorrow, but I’m not too concerned.”
Pierre Gasly
“It was a busy day with the team, trying to get used to the car and learn all of the new procedures and the behaviour of the car. It was the first time working with this group of engineers, so there were a lot of things to get done today.
We had a good plan and lap after lap I felt I was getting used to the car, so I think we are progressing. It’s been a bit tricky in terms of pace for us, so we need to work and find out which direction to take for tomorrow to be more competitive. Some drivers will have penalties this weekend, so we need to make sure we have a good race car for Sunday.”
ROKiT Williams Racing
George Russell
It’s been a long summer break, so I was happy to get back in the seat for FP2. The car generally felt nice to drive so it was enjoyable around a great circuit like this. We knew it was going to be difficult for us, the pace is a long way off, half of the lap time we are missing is on the straight and we also struggle in the corners.
We will look at the data and see if we can find a better compromise tomorrow. All in all, it will be a tough weekend.
Robert Kubica
I would say today was as expected. Driving at Spa is always nice as it’s a great track to drive. The feeling in the car unfortunately is not so great at the moment.
Hopefully we’ll be able to solve some issues and improve the handling of the car. Our pace, unfortunately, is what it is, and the gap to the cars in front is pretty big.
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The summer brake is over! The weather was dry and warm today in Spa, with track temperatures peaking at 40 degrees during the afternoon. The circuit was in good condition. As is often the case in Belgium, there was a big difference in track temperature between the morning and afternoon sessions.
Similar to last year both Ferraris were fastest in every session today. The team topped both FP1 and FP2 with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc respectively. The difference between the medium and soft compounds, which will be used predominantly in the race, is around a second per lap. The hard compound wasn't used much today so it's difficult to predict the gap accurately, but we estimate it to be in the region of 1.5 seconds.
Usually, there is quite a lot of residual rubber put down by the Spa 24 Hours, held last month. With the 24-hour race having been held under a lot of rain though (which even led to a lengthy stoppage) there was little rubber on the Ardenne track. No blistering or graining was seen throughout the day, on one of the most abrasive surfaces in the entire championship.
So how did the drivers experience their this first day at the office after their summer vacation? In order of the FP2 results we summed up the drivers comments after the first day of practice in Belgium.
Scuderia Ferrari
Charles Leclerc (P1 in FP2)
Charles Leclerc
“It was quite a good first day for us after the holidays. I really like this circuit and enjoy driving here. The track is quite long, has all types of corners and there’s a very unique flow to it. Despite our good positions in free practice, we do have to stay realistic and expect our rivals to be very competitive tomorrow.
Our qualifying pace was strong today, but we still have some work ahead of us in improving it over the long runs. If we are quick on the straights, we will hopefully have some good opportunities for overtaking on Sunday, which is a positive. The last few Grands Prix have been great, with a lot of battles, so I hope that this race will be another exciting one.”
Sebastian Vettel (P2 in FP2)
Sebastian Vettel
“It was a positive day and it’s great to be back in the car, especially at a track like this. The feeling from the cockpit was good, but I think there is still room for improvement. Let’s not forget it’s only Friday and it will only get serious tomorrow afternoon and then Sunday when it matters.
On a quick lap, the performance was okay, but the race is not just one lap and so we have to work on improving our race pace, especially in the second sector. In today’s two sessions, we were sliding a bit too much in the middle sector and so for the race it will be important to optimise the tyre behaviour. We still have work to do tomorrow.”
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport
Valtteri Bottas (P3 in FP2)
Valtteri Bottas
"It’s nice to be back in the car especially on a track like this, I had fun out there today. We got through our programme as planned, finding small gains as the day went on; it was pretty much business at usual on Friday.
We always knew coming here that Ferrari and Red Bull would be quick on this track, but Ferrari have been particularly strong on the straights today. We’ll push hard overnight, trying to find every bit of performance we can for tomorrow. We need to make a big step if we want to battle with them, but at least we made some decent gains from FP1 to FP2."
Lewis Hamilton (P4 in FP2)
Lewis Hamilton
"It was obviously not a great start for us in FP1, we had a problem with the throttle pedal, I basically lost power and was idling. I managed to fix it with a couple of switch changes and got the car back to the garage, but when I went out we had another issue. It was a bit of a mess, but we got some laps in towards the end.
We made some changes for FP2 and the car was feeling a lot better, but we still have work to do tonight. The Ferraris are particularly strong in the first sector, we gain some time back in the middle, and I think it looks quite close between us in sector three. They have been strong on the straights all year long, so I had a feeling this weekend might work really well for them. We will have to find a way to apply the pressure this weekend, if we don’t have it on pure pace."
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team
Sergio Pérez (P5 in FP2)
Sergio Pérez
“We are still investigating the problem at the end of second practice, but it looks like a drop in oil pressure which killed the engine. Hopefully it won’t impact on the rest of the weekend too much, but we need to wait and see if anything is damaged and needs to be changed.
Up until that point, things were looking good. The car was strong in both sessions and the new parts we introduced here made an immediate difference. There are still lots of areas to improve before tomorrow, but I’m feeling positive.”
Lance Stroll (P8 in FP2)
Lance Stroll
“Today was one of the better Fridays we have had this season so that is promising. We did some consistent running and the pace of the car is looking good, which is what we expected here in Spa. We suffered some heat transfer issues behind my seat so we will look into that overnight but overall I am feeling positive.
It is a shame we have an engine penalty but it is what it is. We will do what we can in Qualifying but the focus is going to be on setting the car up for Sunday and then trying to pass as many cars as possible to score some points! I’m looking forward to it and confident we can have a good rest of the weekend.”
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen (P6 in FP2)
Max Verstappen
“The car felt pretty good today, especially the balance in FP2 and we are quite competitive in the second sector. We ran a slightly lower power mode on my side of the garage which lost us lap time, especially around such a long circuit, but tomorrow we should be back to normal and there is no point in risking anything on a Friday.
It will be hard to beat Ferrari around here as they are super fast but that is no surprise as this track definitely suits them better than us. We should be closer to Mercedes tomorrow and we will see what we can do from there. We still have a bit of work to do but in general I was quite happy with how the car was behaving.”
Alexander Albon (P10 in FP2)
Alexander Albon
“Today was exciting, a bit like your first day at school, and it felt pretty good. I kept it on the black stuff and I’m enjoying it. I’m just trying to take it slowly, get as many laps as I can and understand the car as I’m still learning. There are obviously differences from Toro Rosso so I’m trying to adapt as quickly as possible,
I can see it’s a nice car to drive and it’s quick, now I just need to get used to it. In the morning, FP1 was pretty good, it was just baby steps really, then in the afternoon we focused more on long runs as with the penalty, our focus isn’t so much on short run pace but more on Sunday. The Team have been very kind to me and so I feel quite at home with the guys. I don’t have any expectations or a finishing goal, I just want to do a good job for Sunday.”
Kimi Räikkönen (P7 in FP2)
Kimi Raikkonen
“Thanks for asking about my leg: It’s okay. Beside this I’m not overly happy with today.
The lap time is okay, but we have a lot of work to do with the set up of the car and I really believe, if we get the balance right we can improve tomorrow.”
Antonio Giovinazzi (P16 in FP2)
Antonio Giovinazzi
“It was difficult to put everything together today. The potential of the car is there but I feel we couldn’t unlock it to the fullest. However, tomorrow is when it matters.
We have to focus on improving ahead of qualifying and do the best possible job in the rest of the weekend. Our aim remains to get a good spot on the grid.”
Renault F1 Team
Daniel Ricciardo (P9 in FP2)
Daniel Ricciardo
“It was a pretty good day and it’s nice to get back into it. The break didn’t feel too long and everything felt very normal on a whole. We were in the top ten for both sessions, so I think we’ve started on the right foot, but we have a little bit more to find.
We probably didn’t make as much progress as we’d have liked in the afternoon. We’re there, with just a few bits and pieces to work on. Other than that, the track’s good, the weather is good and we’ll see what happens.”
Nico Hulkenberg (P13 in FP2)
Nico Hulkenberg
“Our morning was decent and the afternoon started okay, but this afternoon was a bit strange. The car seemed to get worse throughout FP2 on the Soft tyre runs so we need to investigate why.
We have some work to do on short and long runs, but we’re getting ourselves back into the routine of a race weekend again. Nevertheless, it’s nice to be in the car after the break at this great track.”
McLaren F1 Team
Carlos Sainz (P11 in FP2)
Carlos Sainz
“I think it’s been a mixed Friday. During FP1 I was quite encouraged by how the car felt and how the session went. In terms of lap-time, we were looking okay and the behaviour of the car was decent. FP2 was definitely more challenging.
We faced issues with car balance and overall car grip. We need to look carefully into what happened in order to find a bit of lap-time for tomorrow. The target always has to be Q3, so let's see if we can get back in.”
Lando Norris (P15 in FP2)
Lando Norris
“The day was good, we did the things we needed to do. The car seemed to change quite a bit from FP1 to FP2, which is something that we weren’t quite expecting. Also, pace-wise we’re struggling a little bit as well, compared to some of the other guys, so there is plenty to look at overnight.
A good day in terms of what we were doing ourselves but, in terms of pace, we have a bit to catch up on. We’ll work hard tonight and come up with some good ideas for tomorrow.”
Romain Grosjean (P12 in FP2 )
Romain Grosjean
“It was alright. Surprisingly, my first run of the day I was happy with the balance of the car. After we started to remove downforce things got a bit more fruity. That’s obviously always going to be the game at Spa, being fast on the straights, then getting the corners as good as you can. We’re just evaluating which downforce we’re going to run for the weekend.
We’re working really hard to find out what we can do better for the future. I hadn’t run the Hockenheim package until today, and it’s better than the Barcelona one – so my confidence came back up on that package, which is good. It’s very low downforce here though, so it’s always going to be quite complicated.”
Kevin Magnussen (P18 in FP2)
Kevin Magnussen
“It was a bit of a difficult day, definitely not the best Friday we’ve had in a while. We’re really lacking pace and just struggling with the car and the handling. So, we’ll see if we can fix it, or fix some of it, but it’s been a tough start to the weekend. We’re going to do our best to come back.
This is a difficult track to get the downforce levels right, it’s also very difficult for us to make the tires work – that adds another element to our decisions on the aero and the rest of the set-up. If your tires aren’t working, that’s the most important, and they’re not. We need to see if we can fix it. We also didn’t get out for proper long runs today, so there’s more to learn there. Fingers crossed we’ll have a better day tomorrow.”
Daniil Kvyat (P14 in FP2)
Daniil Kvyat
“It’s great to be back in the car after the summer break and Spa is the perfect track to return to racing as well. With quite a few other drivers taking grid penalties, the race should be quite interesting as some drivers will be out of position.
We’ll see how tomorrow goes. This kind of track can either be quite good or quite poor and at the moment, it’s quite poor for us. Today our car wasn’t suited to this track as well as it is to some others. We will see what we can find for tomorrow, but I’m not too concerned.”
Pierre Gasly (P17 in FP2)
Pierre Gasly
“It was a busy day with the team, trying to get used to the car and learn all of the new procedures and the behaviour of the car. It was the first time working with this group of engineers, so there were a lot of things to get done today.
We had a good plan and lap after lap I felt I was getting used to the car, so I think we are progressing. It’s been a bit tricky in terms of pace for us, so we need to work and find out which direction to take for tomorrow to be more competitive. Some drivers will have penalties this weekend, so we need to make sure we have a good race car for Sunday.”
ROKiT Williams Racing
George Russel (P19 in FP2)
George Russell
It’s been a long summer break, so I was happy to get back in the seat for FP2. The car generally felt nice to drive so it was enjoyable around a great circuit like this. We knew it was going to be difficult for us, the pace is a long way off, half of the lap time we are missing is on the straight and we also struggle in the corners.
We will look at the data and see if we can find a better compromise tomorrow. All in all, it will be a tough weekend.
Robert Kubica (P20 in FP2)
Robert Kubica
I would say today was as expected. Driving at Spa is always nice as it’s a great track to drive. The feeling in the car unfortunately is not so great at the moment.
Hopefully we’ll be able to solve some issues and improve the handling of the car. Our pace, unfortunately, is what it is, and the gap to the cars in front is pretty big.
Check out Lap times 1st practice 2019 Belgian F1 GP
Check out Lap times 2nd practice 2019 Belgian F1 GP
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