Belgian GP: Vettel leads FP1 from Verstappen

Vettel edged Red Bull driver Max Verstappen to the quickest time in FP1 at Spa, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton third despite avoiding the fastest tyre compound.

Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas hit the top of the pile at the end of the opening half an hour with the first sub-1m45s lap, a 1m44.998s on softs.

That was quickly replaced as the benchmark by Hamilton's 1m44.676, also on softs, which stood as the four-time world champion's best lap of the 90-minute session as he chose not to use the supersoft tyres.

His rivals did, which allowed Vettel and Verstappen to overhaul Hamilton before the session's end.

Vettel only lapped 0.3s faster than Hamilton when he popped in a 1m44.358s, with Verstappen neatly splitting the gap between the two titles rivals.

That gave Red Bull some cheer to counter the problem that struck Daniel Ricciardo's car, as an engine problem confined him to the garage for most of the session and restricted him to just one flying lap, which he used to jump to sixth right at the end.

That put him behind Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari and Bottas, who was shuffled back to fifth as he avoided the supersofts and made a slight improvement on mediums.

Esteban Ocon gave the 'new' Racing Point Formula 1 team a strong start to its 'debut' weekend with the seventh-fastest time.

Ocon edged Renault's Nico Hulkenberg to best-of-the-rest honours on a 1m45.786s

Sergio Perez backed up teammate Ocon in ninth, with Carlos Sainz completing the top 10 after a late improvement in the second Renault.

McLaren 2019 hopeful Lando Norris made his grand prix weekend debut with the team, driving in place of the outgoing Fernando Alonso in FP1.

He set the 18th-fastest time, 3.006s off the pace but less than a tenth quicker than teammate Stoffel Vandoorne.

Norris and Vandoorne are vying for the second McLaren seat alongside Sainz next season, with Ocon also a contender.

Vandoorne, who moved to quash speculation suggesting he could lose his McLaren drive as early as next weekend in Italy, was hampered by a brake problem early in the session.

He then lost more track time at the end of the session as the team removed the floor to investigate a suspected leak.

Cla	Driver	Team	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	19	1'44.358			241.614
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	20	1'44.509	0.151	0.151	241.265
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	22	1'44.676	0.318	0.167	240.880
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	17	1'44.718	0.360	0.042	240.783
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	25	1'44.724	0.366	0.006	240.770
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	4	1'45.558	1.200	0.834	238.867
7	Esteban Ocon	Racing Point	Mercedes	22	1'45.786	1.428	0.228	238.352
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	19	1'45.951	1.593	0.165	237.981
9	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	Mercedes	21	1'46.169	1.811	0.218	237.493
10	Carlos Sainz	Renault	Renault	19	1'46.210	1.852	0.041	237.401
11	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Honda	25	1'46.300	1.942	0.090	237.200
12	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	20	1'46.387	2.029	0.087	237.006
13	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	Ferrari	20	1'46.554	2.196	0.167	236.634
14	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	19	1'46.557	2.199	0.003	236.628
15	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Honda	23	1'46.932	2.574	0.375	235.798
16	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	25	1'46.965	2.607	0.033	235.725
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	21	1'47.012	2.654	0.047	235.622
18	Lando Norris	McLaren	Renault	26	1'47.364	3.006	0.352	234.849
19	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	Mercedes	23	1'47.367	3.009	0.003	234.843
20	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Renault	13	1'47.452	3.094	0.085	234.657