Rosberg tops first practice at Spa
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg topped the first practice session for the Belgium Grand Prix, as Formula 1 returns from the summer break.
As expected Rosberg and his teammate Lewis Hamilton finished in the top two, although there was a large gap of 0.73 seconds between the two. The German helped test the halo device at the beginning of the session.
It will be near impossible for Hamilton to repeat the first place result at Spa last year. He will be starting near the back of the grid after going over his power unit allocation for this weekend.
Kimi Raikkonen finished third, and not too far behind Hamilton. The Finnish driver was just under 0.8 seconds slower than Rosberg, and Ferrari look like they could be competitive. His teammate Sebastien Vettel finished fifth.
The Force India drivers also found themselves in the top eight. Sergio Perez was the only other driver to get within a second of the fastest lap of the session.
Nico Hulkenberg was sixth for the majority of the session, but Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen went sixth and seventh respectively in the final moments of the session.
The last points positions could be a fight between Haas and Williams. Valtteri Bottas was the fastest of the four drivers, although Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean were both ahead of Felipe Massa.
The weekend doesn’t look good so far for Renault. Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer were the slowest drivers that put in a lap. They at least had time on the track unlike Fernando Alonso, who had an issue with his car.