F1 is back this weekend at last! The forecast for the weekend is for rain, which has me incredibly excited. It must be said though, that when us F1 fans are promised rain, the race is dry and hot enough to be held in a desert. Hopefully a bit of reverse psychology works this weekend, and we get a great race!
The start and end of the session was bookended by rain, and with this expected to be the only “dry” session, teams had some important data to collect. Many drivers didn’t come out until about 10 minutes after the start of the session, or so it seemed to me, as my broadcast refused to load! Around 50 minutes, the drivers crawled out onto the track, and soon drove back to the garage without setting a banker lap, as the track was too dry for the intermediate tyres they had come out on. Everyone slowly crawled out on the medium and hard tyres to find the limits, and some even overstepped it by a bit. Both Kimi and Yuki spun at Turn 1, trying to find the limits.
🎶 “Anything you can do, I can do better 🎶
Raikkonen sends it for a spin at La Source 🔄
Tsunoda repeats the feat outside the pit exit 😅#BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/EFdwGkBcSE
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2021
There was a slight moment at the end of the Kemmel Straight, when Stroll seemed to impede Russell while the Briton was on a fast lap, a radio misunderstanding is to blame I believe. It all went by without much issue, until around the 22 minutes remaining mark, when Kimi had an incident on his way back into the pits. Hamilton and Latifi had a bit of a moment, when Lewis was ending his lap. The Briton was on his fast lap, while the Canadian was preparing for his. Both came very close to one another, ending Lewis’ chances of a fast lap time.
Leclerc ran wide at Turn 7, pushing the limits, and Schumacher did the same at the Bus Stop Chicane, locking both front tyres in the process. Bottas had a quiet but good session, though he did miss the pit entry while on his in lap. He still managed to bag P1 overall, with Max not far behind, the Dutchman having a decent session overall.
How representative this session will be in the grand scheme of things, it remains to be seen. It can, however be expected that Mercedes and Red Bull will be troubling each other all weekend. A special mention here for Gasly and both Ferrari drivers, who showed some great pace, finishing 3rd, 4th and 5th.
The unlucky drivers were Hamilton, who was impeded on his only fast lap, and Kimi who had a somewhat weird accident, colliding with the pit wall on his way in. Ricciardo, Stroll and Perez will have to improve the deficit to their teammates, as they all were a good way off.
It might have been a damp FP1, but nothing can “dampen” my love for seeing these cars on track! On to FP2 we go now.
