Leclerc pips Vettel as Ferrari dominate practice

Charles Leclerc bounced back to upstage his teammate Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari dominated yesterday’s two free practice sessions for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. The two Ferraris topped the times ahead of Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton on a warm and humid afternoon at the majestic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Ardennes.

Leclerc led the way with a best lap of one minute and 44.123 seconds to outpace fourtime world champion Vettel by six-tenths of a second, as Ferrari continued in the afternoon where they had left off in the morning’s action, when German Vettel led the Monegasque. Bottas, confirmed on Thursday to be staying with Mercedes next season, was just over eighth-tenths of a second off the pace, slightly ahead of Hamilton.

The session ended prematurely when Sergio Perez’s Racing Point car stopped with a fire around the exhaust system. A Virtual Safety Car was deployed and then the action was red-flagged, and with only two minutes remaining the session was not re-started. Mexican Perez was running with an upgraded Mercedes power-unit, as were Vettel and championship leader Hamilton, the latter of whom had problems in the morning with his new engine.

Perez wound up fifth, ahead of Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Lance Stroll eighth in the second Racing Point ahead of Daniel Ricciardo of Renault and Verstappen’s new teammate Alexander Albon, who was 10th.