Max Verstappen well clear of Oscar Piastri and Alex Albon in first practice
Max Verstappen comfortably tops opening practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen comfortably topped the timesheets in opening practice at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.
Red Bull's reigning world champion finished 0.531s clear of McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who claimed his maiden grand prix victory last time out in Hungary.
But Verstappen's bid to return to winning for the first time in four races has already taken a hit with the news he will serve a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's grand prix after taking a new power unit.
Alex Albon set an eye-catching pace to put his Williams third, some 0.727s adrift of Verstappen.
The Williams driver outpaced the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, both of whom finished more than eight tenths down on Verstappen's benchmark.
Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez and McLaren's Lando Norris.
Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll rounded out the top-10 for Ferrari and Aston Martin respectively.
Esteban Ocon completed just one lap before he was left garage-bound with a suspected leak on his Alpine car.
The only other drama in FP1 came from Daniel Ricciardo, who spun his RB coming out of La Source early in the session.
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