Max Verstappen causes a surprise in Belgian GP practice opener

Max Verstappen surprisingly led the way after the opening practice session for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

Verstappen and Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar head into qualifying and the race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit seemingly with a pace deficit compared to their rivals.

That is based on the team ditching the 'Macarena' wing, which led to crashes for Verstappen over the Austrian and British GP weekends, and reverting to its original spec.

Yet it was the four-time F1 champion who finished the hour-long session out in front, setting a time of 1:47.070s, whilst Hadjar was fourth quickest, a quarter of a second down. It is the first time this season neither Mercedes nor Ferrari has led an FP1. 

Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc effectively provided the filling in a Red Bull sandwich, with Lewis Hamilton narrowly ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes left wanting

On the medium tyres, Hamilton laid down an initial marker lap of 1:50.438s, but that was very quickly usurped by Verstappen, and then Hadjar with a time of 1:48.918s.

The Frenchman, however, was on soft tyres, a rubber he is not expected to have too much use for in qualifying given he is set to start from the back of the grid due to changes to his power unit.

On Pirelli's medium compound, Verstappen returned to the top of the timesheet, pipping Hadjar by 0.227s.

Hadjar later traded places with Verstappen again as the session progressed, edging ahead by 0.081s, and he continued to lead the way by the 20-minute mark.

At that point, McLaren's Lando Norris was the only driver without a time to his name, completing just two installation laps. The current champion also faces a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race due to taking another control electronics unit.

Approaching the half-hour mark, and on soft tyres, Norris finally set a time, albeit 2.803s adrift of Hadjar. He at least improved to seventh fastest by session's end.

Instead, it was championship leader Kimi Antonelli who surged to the top in his Mercedes by 0.175s over Hadjar on the red-striped rubber. Despite a purple sector from team-mate George Russell soon after, the Briton finished a third of a second down on his team-mate.

As the soft tyres soon became the compound of choice for the rest of the field, Verstappen and Hadjar again headed the field, with the Dutchman a quarter of a second quicker, leaving Antonelli half-a-second adrift.

Hamilton managed to split the Mercedes pair on his maiden soft-tyre run before Leclerc popped up to third quickest, 0.420s down on Verstappen.

Hamilton and Leclerc, though, then improved, with the seven-time champion finishing 0.145s adrift, with Leclerc 0.207s off the pace, positions the leading trio held through to the conclusion.

Behind the top four, McLaren's Oscar Piastri was fifth quickest, 0.452s down, followed by Antonelli, Russell, and Norris, with Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad and Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto completing the top 10, with the latter 1.336s adrift.

Piastri, though, finished the session needing to crawl slowly back to the pits due to a hydraulics pressure issue that will be investigated ahead of FP2.

Jak Crawford, replacing Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin for FP1, finished bottom of the standings, just over six seconds down.