Sebastian Vettel has topped first practice for the 2018 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen second fastest.
Vettel started the session by trading fastest times with Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, before the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas went out on track and joined the mix.
Hamilton held onto the top spot for much of the session, with Raikkonen a mere +0.042 seconds behind before the order changed again towards the end of the 90 minutes.
Hamilton was pushed down to third by Vettel’s time of 1m44.358s, while Verstappen managed second with a time a second and a half slower than the German.
Raikkonen ended the session in fourth, ahead of Bottas who was fifth fastest.
Daniel Ricciardo was unable to get out on track until three minutes before the end of the session but put himself in sixth with his one flying lap of the track, only one second slower than team-mate Verstappen.
Esteban Ocon was seventh for the newly formed Racing Point Force India team despite the turbulence of recent weeks while team-mate Sergio Perez set the ninth fastest time.
The Renault pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz complete the top 10 in eighth and tenth.
McLaren reserve driver Lando Norris participated in the session, his first experience of an F1 race weekend, and set the 18th fastest time using Fernando Alonso’s machinery.
He also did the most laps of anybody, racking up 26 tours of the circuit.
McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was last in the session after encountering brake issues early on which appeared to be resolved before the car again underwent work in the garage.
