Posted on 21st August 2015
In the first FP1 session in Belgium, Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen even though most people's attentions were on what happened with Sergio Perez in the second half of the session.
During the session, we saw in the last 40 minutes of the session Pastor Maldonado having an accident when he lost the rear of his Lotus exiting Malmedy at the top of the circuit. His Lotus slewed sideways across the circuit towards the inside of the track and made heavy contact with the tyre barrier, ripping the front right suspension from its mountings.
Maldonado got out of the car okay and wasn’t injured as a result of this accident. This then brought out the red flag in order to recover the Lotus from the race track. The car will require a fairly substantial repair job ahead of second practice.
But it was Nico Rosberg who topped the timesheets with a lap time of 1.51.082 ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in second place who was 0.242 seconds behind him but was ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who finished in third place who was 0.291 seconds behind the Mercedes of Rosberg.
Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in fourth place ahead of his team mate Sebastian Vettel in fifth place, Daniil Kvyat in sixth place and Max Verstappen in seventh place. Carlos Sainz Jr ended the session in eighth place ahead of Sergio Perez in ninth place and Valtteri Bottas who rounds off the top ten finishers.
Pastor Maldonado ended the session in eleventh place despite his accident on track ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in twelfth place, Felipe Nasr in thirteenth place, Felipe Massa in fourteenth place and Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Fernando Alonso finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Jolyon Palmer in seventeenth place, Jenson Button in eighteenth place and the two Manor drivers of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi finishing in nineteenth and twentieth places.
The classification of FP1 for the Belgian GP is as follows:-
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.51.082
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.242s
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 0.291s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.396s
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.784s
6. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 0.878s
7. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.076s
8. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.339s
9. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.341s
10. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.429s
11. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.457s
12. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.532s
13. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.558s
14. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.571s
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.344s
16. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.420s
17. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus-Mercedes, 2.717s
18. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 3.143s
19. Will Stevens, Manor, 4.419s
20. Fabio Leimer, Manor, 5.004s
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
