Formula 1 returned from its summer break at a cool, overcast and sporadically showery Spa-Francorchamps on Friday, with the front-runners narrowly separated.
Max Verstappen set the quickest time on Soft tyres, just 0.041s ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, with title leader Lewis Hamilton close behind in third spot, who both used Mediums for their fastest efforts.
Spa-Francorchamps presents a challenge to teams owing to the layout of the course, with the first and last sectors requiring a high top speed, and the lengthy middle sector placing an emphasis on cornering performance.
The situation is also complicated by the unpredictable weather in the Ardennes Forest in which Spa-Francorchamps is located.
Showers, and cool ambient conditions, are expected throughout the course of the weekend but forecasting the exact location and intensity of the rain is a challenge.
“Yeah it’s a massively challenging circuit trying to find that balance,” said Hamilton on the set-up.
“This morning we had it one way, we changed it for this afternoon, it was very, very similar. You go faster in the first and third sector but you go slower in the middle, or you go quick in the middle but slow in the other two.
“So trying to find that balance is very tricky, but it’s a great, great circuit.”
“Naturally if it’s guaranteed to rain then you would want more downforce, but then if it doesn’t rain and the weatherman’s wrong then you’re a sitting duck on the straights.”
Bottas eclipsed Hamilton in the second practice session, having led the way in the first session, ahead of a grand prix for which he has a five-place grid penalty.
“The pace we had both in the short and the long runs was pretty decent,” said Bottas.
“It’s always tricky to compare in detail, from practice, but at least the feeling is good, that’s a positive.
“We definitively seem quite fast on the straight lines, maybe less so in Sector two, with all the corners, but probably for me, for the race, it’s important to be quick in sectors one and three.
“If it rains, you definitively want more downforce, so we need to see session by session how it’s going to look, but it’s going to be a key decision, what we choose for qualifying.”
