Verstappen started to lead in Belgium and Alonso asked questions about his engine

Max Verstappen must swim against the current to Belgian F1 GP this Sunday. The Dutch driver has to return with the aim of minimizing his possible loss against Lando Norris looks at the lead in the F1 World Championship because he has to start this Sunday with a fine already 10 places on the starting grid for the installation of its 5th internal combustion engine of the year.

The Dutchman wants to start his comeback from classification. He knows that if he gets pole, he will start in 11th and there is no going back and that is his aim to continue the attack. But before him was a McLaren that at the moment showed less speed in one lap.

It’s still very early and there are still two free practice sessions to start to see how the cars really do. But for now, Max Verstappen did everything from the start, leading Belgium’s first free practice session from the start as he set his way and continued his dominance in the first ‘qualy’ simulation of the weekend with soft rubber.

Is McLaren hiding?

From the start, more was expected from McLarens, ever since Oscar Piastri was 2nd but a long way from Max, half a second away, and Lando Norris must have been confused as he was only 8th. McLaren has been the best car in the last 8 rounds and Norris and Piastro should be favorites again, also knowing that Max has 10 penalty places. Lando has a great chance of cutting off the points from Max in the title fight. It is necessary to see if he will take advantage of it without finally making a mistake.

The time table is still not very representative, and the proof of this is the third position of Williams of Alex Albon. Russell was fourth at 0″853, with his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, in 5th place at 0″907. The silver arrows also started at a distance, although they were the masters of playing hide and seek on Friday before pushing their engine to the maximum on the ‘qualy’ and fully entering the fight for pole.

For now, Mercedes bounces big on the long straight and fast Spa cornerso they have to solve it in Free Practice 2 this afternoon.

Sainz, 9th with his Ferrari

Ferrari had to improve its rebound on the modified floor they debuted in Hungary and it seems to have worked. But for now, the red car is far away. Sainz already warned MD a week ago that he doesn’t expect his car to compete against Verstappen and the McLarens at the top and to do that he needs the update they are doing at the Maranello factory.

It is necessary to see if the maximum speed of your vehicle allows you to have more options than in Hungary. For now, Leclerc is 6th at 0.934 and Sainz 9th at 1.202, too far. Between the two Ferraris is the Red Bull of a ‘Czech’ Pérez who needs to improve (7th, 0.957 behind his teammate Max) and Norris, in eighth place, 1 second behind.

Alonso, 12th and asking about his engine

Spa-Francorchamps should be a more favorable track than the last tracks where the Aston Martin car has competed due to its top speed and strong DRS. however, Walking was 10th, 1.3 from the lead and Fernando Alonso, 12th, 1.5 with a car that suffers a lot of bounce on such a fast track.

At the end of his qualifying simulation lap with soft rubber, the Asturian asked his team by radio if everything was fine with his engine, because he lost 6 tenths with respect to Verstappen in sector 1, of pure acceleration.

“Is the engine okay? How can we be slower in the first sector?” Fernando Alonso asked his radio engineer. “We checked it, Fernando,” he answered. It will be necessary to see if the green car improves in Free Practice 2 this afternoon and we have to be careful in evaluating the speed of the race in an important session for the Silverstone team, to continue to evaluate the new package presented in Hungary in a full which is the opposite.