Belgian GP: Oscar Piastri lays down a marker in FP1 as Verstappen and Norris falter

Oscar Piastri set the pace in the sole practice session at Spa, but it didn’t tell the full story with traffic for Max Verstappen and wheels in the gravel for Lando Norris.

Piastri finished FP1 four-tenths ahead of Verstappen with Norris a further tenth off the pace.

Oscar Piastri blitzes the competition in FP1

After a two week break, the Formula 1 drivers returned to the track at Spa, not only facing a Sprint weekend but also the introduction of brand new Pirelli tyres – the C1-ish. Not as hard as the traditional C1 but not as a soft as the step down, the C2.

The drivers lined up at the end of the pit lane only for Carlos Sainz to run into trouble on his out-lap as he reported he couldn’t “accelerate”. Williams responded: “Critical problem on the limp mode.” Sainz asked if it was a “big issue” and was told the team doesn’t know, but to bring the car back to the pits.

Max Verstappen set the early running on the medium tyre with a 1:45.545, putting him half a second up on Lando Norris, who was running the hard Pirelli rubber.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, spewing a bit of smoke from his Ferrari, tagged the kerb at Raidillon and backed off on his flying lap. He cut the Les Combes chicane on his next lap. “I have a lot of rear locking and instability,” said the Briton.

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

He wasn’t the only one struggling to stay on the track, with Kimi Antonelli locking up, as did France Colapinto. Meanwhile, Sainz and Lance Stroll sat in the pits as their respective teams worked on their cars.

Verstappen upped his pace at the front of the field to a 1:44.236 with Esteban Ocon in the Alpine up to second place, 0.067s down. Oscar Piastri in third, but still on the hard tyres, was half a second off the pace a third of the way into the weekend’s sole practice session.

Hamilton’s troubles continued as he got in the way of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto ,with the Brazilian voicing his frustration. “What the fuck is Hamilton doing? He’s always in the middle of the track!”

His team-mate Charles Leclerc hit the front with a 1:44.148, 0.088s up on Verstappen. The Monegasque then almost got in the way of another, Alex Albon, and ran wide off the track to avoid impeding the Williams driver.

George Russell had a close encounter himself as he was blocked by Colapinto and had to dive down the outside of the Alpine driver with two wheels on the grass to avoid a collision. That was referred to the stewards.

As drivers began to swap to the soft tyres ahead of Friday afternoon’s Sprint qualifying, Colapinto improved to eighth place but then the soft tyres began and ended as the drivers focused more on race pace.

Stroll was only the second driver to try the soft Pirellis, up from 11th to P1 with a 1:43.112. But as more drivers swapped to the soft tyres, Piastri went P1 with a 1:42.123. Verstappen wasn’t able to match his time, reporting issues with his RB21, as he was half a second down while Norris ran wide on his flying lap.

With a lap in hand, Piastri, Verstappen and Norris had another go…

The session ended with Piastri P1 by 0.404s ahead of Verstappen. Norris was third, a further tenth off the pace.

Belgian GP FP1 lap times

1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:42.022
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.404
3 Lando Norris McLaren +0.504
4 George Russell Mercedes +0.576
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.906
6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.957
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +1.063
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.090
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +1.098
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +1.100
11 Carlos Sainz Williams +1.195
12 Alexander Albon Williams +1.239
13 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber +1.240
14 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber +1.448
15 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.456
16 Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team +1.548
17 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.907
18 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing +2.470
19 Franco Colapinto Alpine +2.825
20 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +3.055

Read next: Max Verstappen loses long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase for Spa