First Free Practice Results 2022 Belgian F1 Grand Prix

Event: Belgian Grand Prix
Track: Spa-Francorchamps Circuit

Carlos Sainz

Weather: dry  18°C
Tarmac: dry  22°C
Humidity : 84%
Wind : 2.0 km/h NW
Pressure: 968 bar

The first Belgian F1 grand Prix practice after the summer break started of a bit damp. It had been drizzling before the start of this FP1, but all cars were fitted with normal slick tyres. McLaren and Mercedes again brought a lot of upgrades on their cars to make them better.

Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri AT03 was driven by Liam Lawson this FP1 session. Valtteri Bottas also didn't came out with the Alfa Romeo. His car  had technical problem again.

After 10 minutes McLaren driver Lando Norris topped the time sheet with his quickest lap time of 1:49.712 min on soft tyres. His teammate that lost his McLaren seat for next season was second on 0.298s on medium compound tyres.

That was before 2022 championship leader Max Verstappen put in a quick lap in the Red Bull on a set of softs. The Dutchman took the quickest lap to a 1:47.456 min, which was over 2 seconds faster than Norris' time. Both Ferrari's were still driving around on the hard tyres and were 4th and 5th, 2.7 sec. behind Verstappen.

After 15 minutes Alpine driver Esteban Ocon told his team he had a technical problem and the car was "pulling". The team asked the Frenchman to drive back to the pits slowly to check out the problem.

Halfway the session the top 10 order was: 1. Verstappen (1:46.755 min | S), 2. Albon (+1.357s | S), 3. Hamilton (+1.665s | M), 4. Pérez (+1.719 | H), 5. Leclerc (+2.262s | H), 6. Sainz (+2.343s | H), 7. Ricciardo (+2.670s | M), 8. Norris (+2.715s | S), 9. Alonso (+2.909s | S), 10. Vettel (+3.058s | M).

With 20 minutes to go the power unit in the back of Kevin Magnussen's Haas stopped working and he had to park on track just after turn 1. A red flag was used to recover the Haas VF-22 and all cars had to go back to the pits.

Due to the high voltage hybrid system the Haas wasn't safe to touch and it took almost 15 minutes to recover it. With 8 minutes to go the track was clear to resume the practice session. When the session resumed the drivers got warnings that rain was coming and would start from turn 15.

With 5 minutes to go the rain started and all cars went in the pits again. Only Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso went out to try out a set of intermediates on the McLaren and the Alpine.

The quickest lap time of last year's FP1 was a 1:45.199 min, set by Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes W12.

FP1 Times Table 2022 Belgian GP

✅ Don't forget to check out our 2022 Belgian F1 Grand Prix preview info.

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