It was Kimi Raikkonen who set the pace in the first practice session, for the Belgian Grand Prix but it was clear that as many expected it is Mercedes who have the car to beat around Spa Francorchamps, claiming every fastest sector around the track but just not quite hooking one clean lap up. Even more impressive was the fact he set his time on the slowest compound tyres, just proving how much pace he had.

Hamilton was half a tenth of Raikkonen's time of a 1:45.502, with Sebastian Vettel in third place on a 1:45.647 with those three really some way off the rest of the pack in terms of pace, even with Hamilton on the soft tyres, showing there really is some work to do if anyone is to have much chance of matching them this weekend.

The Red Bulls were next quickest with Max Verstappen setting the pace in the closest race he has to a home GP with  Daniel Ricciardo close behind but ultimately both eight tenths away from Raikkonen's time despite Ricciardo being close to the top of the time sheets for the majority of the session.

Bottas was in sixth place with a time also set on the softs but almost a second away from his teammate after a bizarre crash with around 20 minutes left of the session, going off after trying to get out of the way of the car behind him, ultimately ending up with minor damage to his front wing.

The pace setters of the midfield pack in FP1 at least seemed to be the Toro Rossos, ending up an impressive seventh for Sainz and ninth for Kvyat on the ultra soft tyres with Sainz on a 1:47.446 an especially impressive time for seventh place, and only a small way away from last years pole position time which the top six have already beaten showing just how quick the cars are around the track this year.

Ocon ended up in the middle of the Toro Rosso sandwich in eighth, only a small margin of off Sainz's pace but on the soft tyres, showing that Ocon could potentially be able to fight with at least the likes of Red Bull this weekend, on a track that will be suited to the Force India's strengths as Spa so often is.

In tenth it was the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne, setting a very good headline pace for his home Grand Prix on a track where the Honda engine's lack of power is probably going to be disappointingly exposed and with Vandoorne already set to start from last place with 35 places worth of grid penalties it does not look like it will be a happy home Grand Prix for the Belgian, despite the pace shown here.

The Renaults were next in line in 11th and 12th, with Jolyon Palmer, who is still in the seat despite heavy speculation at the end of the last race that his seat may be given to Robert Kubica after the summer break, going well to beat his teammate Nico Hulkenberg, in a valuable performance for the British driver if he is to keep his drive beyond this season.

In unlucky thirteenth was Fernando Alonso with yet another frustrating session for the Spaniard, with him complaining of no power early in the session leading to repairs whilst the red flag was out, then having consistent troubles until the end of the session with his DRS, only being fixed in the later moments of the session, and ended up some way behind his teammate.

In 14th there was Sergio Perez, who even though he was on the soft tyres must be disappointed with that position on a track where they should go well, as his teammate was, with a time eight tenths quicker than the mexican.

The sole Williams of Lance Stroll ended up only 15th, and not helped by teammate Felipe Massa making an uncharacteristic error early on in the session leading him to having to retire from the session, Williams are on the backfoot on a track where the team will surely be looking to do better than the teams around them with their Mercedes power unit advantage.

It was then two by two for the last four places in the first practice session with the Haas' of Magnussen and Grosjean ahead of Sauber's Ericsson and Wehrlein in those positions respectively, with all of them interestingly setting their times on the super soft tyres.

Sam Gale

Photos Belgium 2017

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