Difficult track, it rained in the morning and also before and during the first free practice session. The time that dried served for the teams to roll and collect data for the race (more rain threatens in FP2), but the times were not brilliant, almost two seconds from 2020, and the drivers made more mistakes than usual. Raikkonen, for example, collided with the wall at the entrance to the pit lane. Bottas commanded with the Mercedes, although he found a good slipstream from Sainz to mark a first ‘vitaminized’ sector that unbalanced the times. He outscored Verstappen by one tenth, although the Dutchman was in the lead throughout the session and showed ease in making Red Bull run at Spa-Francorchamps.
Gasly and the two Ferraris finished not far from the lead. Leclerc and Sainz, six and seven tenths behind Bottas, respectively, delivered a good start for SF21. A year ago, this was one of the circuits that revealed the shortcomings of the Italian engine. On this occasion, perhaps it will help them to test the improvements of the car and the car in just 12 months. They have been on the podium in the last two races, Silverstone and Hungary.
Alonso was eleventh, just behind Ocon, although the times are not representative with such changing track conditions. An example is the Hamilton’s 18th place, that he found a Williams stopped when he was setting his best time and had to abort the attempt. He would have finished close, perhaps in front of Valtteri. It will be difficult for the times to improve in the afternoon if the rain forecast is fulfilled. Round 60%.