With the rain that has been falling for two days on the Spa circuit, it was very likely that the free practice session would not be of great interest and would not allow the drivers to acquire a lot of data and confidence for the rest of the weekend, marked by a sprint on Saturday.
And indeed, for 60 minutes, on a soggy track, the 20 cars did not jostle each other on the track, and some drivers did not even set a time, such as Max Verstappen (Red Bull) or Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine).
Some nevertheless took the risk of “chasing the clock”, first on wet tires then for some on intermediates. And in the end, it was Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) who finished at the top of the time sheet, in 2’03″207. A time that does not mean much. The Spaniard beat Oscar’s McLaren Piastri and Lando Norris, respectively by 0.5 and 1.2.
The session was interrupted only once, which is not much given the conditions, following Logan Sargeant (Williams) leaving the track after aquaplaning at Les Combes.
With this rain, it is not guaranteed that the qualifying session for the Grand Prix, from 5 p.m., can take place. If it were to be cancelled, the World Championship classification will be used to determine the starting grid.