2020 Belgian Grand Prix Free Practice & Qualifying Thread

[UnlikeUday]

Source - Imgur

My favorite race of the season. Rain is predicted on all 3 days of the race weekend.

[lucifers]

hope we get at least a wet qualy and race. enjoyed the last wet qualy we had.

[pokerman]

It seems so long since the last race.

[Banana Man]

Seems like yesterday I was there watching last years race. Fingers crossed for enough rain to make life interesting. Been a while since we had a wet race at Spa.

[JN23]

Just looking at the weather forecast on the BBC (no idea how reliable) and it seems the forecast for Friday and Saturday is now dry, but still rain for Sunday.

Last time it rained in a race at Spa was 2010 I think, bit weird considering it seems to have a reputation for changing conditions.

[JN23]

Also, expecting Racing Point to be strong this weekend and to be challenging for the final podium spot. I imagine they'll be hoping it stays dry.

[mikeyg123]

On the BBC forecast it's about 40% chance of rain. I've seen rain forecast for F1 about 4389076% more often than anything wet actually turns up on track so I'll believe it when I see it.

[Exediron]

Also, expecting Racing Point to be strong this weekend and to be challenging for the final podium spot. I imagine they'll be hoping it stays dry.

I hope you're right, but I think the podium will be the two Mercs and Verstappen every race unless something happens to one of them.

[UnlikeUday]

Also, expecting Racing Point to be strong this weekend and to be challenging for the final podium spot. I imagine they'll be hoping it stays dry.

And the cooler conditions surely favour Mercedes and RP. RP and especially Checo have a very good record here of great results.

[TheGiantHogweed]

Haas just seem like a broken team. They just can't have a weekend without without a problem with their car on one of the 3 days each race weekend it seems.

[TheGiantHogweed]

Also, expecting Racing Point to be strong this weekend and to be challenging for the final podium spot. I imagine they'll be hoping it stays dry.

And the cooler conditions surely favour Mercedes and RP. RP and especially Checo have a very good record here of great results.

I think the only time in recent years at this track where he ruined his result was in 2017. That was a pretty shocking race by him to be honest. He squeezed Ocon against the wall twice. He should have learnt from this first time which they were incredibly lucky to escape unharmed. But he seemed to deliberately do it again later on and retired in the end possibly because of damage. But both times it was Perez forcing Ocon. Not sure what he was thinking here given virtually all of his other races at this track have been good. Sometimes drivers seem more determined to fight with their team rather than competitors. These were not the only times Perez and Ocon collided either. At least perez and Stroll seem to have more respect for each other.

[Fiki]

On the BBC forecast it's about 40% chance of rain. I've seen rain forecast for F1 about 4389076% more often than anything wet actually turns up on track so I'll believe it when I see it.

The latest weather report from the Belgian met office says showers in the morning, and while that showery tendency decreases in the afternoon from west to east, Francorchamps is in the area where they will persist the longest. Fingers crossed for a wet race, I'll be in my comfy chair anyway.

[Clarky]

LeClerc is 9/10's down through sector 1.

[JN23]

LeClerc is 9/10's down through sector 1.

Leclerc's best sector 1 is 31.196, Perez has the best all session of 30.831 so three and a half tenths roughly. I think Sky were talking about that specific lap from Leclerc there is was 9/10ths or so.

[JN23]

Bottas picked up a puncture somewhere, it wasn't obvious looking at the tyre that he had one so no idea what happened.

[pokerman]

LeClerc is 9/10's down through sector 1.

Leclerc's best sector 1 is 31.196, Perez has the best all session of 30.831 so three and a half tenths roughly. I think Sky were talking about that specific lap from Leclerc there is was 9/10ths or so.

Comparing with Alfa Romeo I think Ferrari have their engines turned down quite a bit.

[JN23]

Well either Mercedes haven't turned it up at all or we're in for a cracking battle. Almost certainly the former though. Not surprised to see Renault go well, they were good on low downforce circuits last season.

Ferrari

[UnlikeUday]

Porsche supercup practice red flagged due to heavy rain!

[Invade]

Mercedes with the heavy sandbags. Yeh they didn't have a perfect day but we all know the gaps today aren't going to be representative, otherwise on long runs Racing Point will be virtually there with Mercedes, going by stats I saw elsewhere.

I'm just curious to see what sort of real race pace Verstappen can muster and if RBR can be rough equals with these softer compounds.

[Zazu]

Well either Mercedes haven't turned it up at all or we're in for a cracking battle. Almost certainly the former though. Not surprised to see Renault go well, they were good on low downforce circuits last season.

Ferrari

Its Friday. I cringe listening to Di Resta talk about set ups and then Hamilton preaching Red Bulls are quicker and possibly everyone has caught up. When they actually push tomorrow they're not going to have lost their second a lap advantage especially on a track where 2 sectors are virtually flat out bar a hairpin and a chicane

[mmi16]

Did Ferrari go out and buy the power units from Yugo? All the teams with Ferrari power sucked.

[Clarky]

Red Bull taken a lot of downforce off.

Ferrari miles off. Have gone for higher downforce today.

[JN23]

The FIA need to sort some maximum lap times out. Some cars were almost stopping just before the bus stop chicane.

Monza next week too, that was a laughing stock last year.

[JN23]

Ferrari 17th and 20th

[Clarky]

The FIA need to sort some maximum lap times out. Some cars were almost stopping just before the bus stop chicane.

Monza next week too, that was a laughing stock last year.

This is a joke.

[Clarky]

Ferrari are in deep trouble.

Both could go out in Q1.

[JN23]

On Ferrari - not sure either of them were happy with the laps so might be a bit more pace for them there.

[JN23]

Red Bull taken a lot of downforce off.

Ferrari miles off. Have gone for higher downforce today.

It might be that Merc have a lot of downforce on too - Di Resta just said that Hamilton's S2 was 1.1s quicker than anyone else. Bottas aborted his second run but the Merc is mighty through there.

[Option or Prime]

For Ferrari to be that down on power what could account for their super fast performances last year? It clearly wasn't a tweak to find a little bit more but more like a fundamental component of the P.U. I'm still curious about all that.

[TheGiantHogweed]

Latifi only 1.516 slower than Hamilton. That is pretty impressive from him and Williams. This is the longest track and Even the slowest (as it happens it is Vettel, is just over 2 seconds slower. So the teams really are pretty close at the back, but ferrari seems to be in there with Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams which seems shocking really. And the Willaims top that bunch!!

[kleefton]

For Ferrari to be that down on power what could account for their super fast performances last year? It clearly wasn't a tweak to find a little bit more but more like a fundamental component of the P.U. I'm still curious about all that.

We will never know for sure, but we can assume it had to do with them tricking the fuel flow sensor so they could get more fuel to the engine than was allowed by the rules. Their whole car concept was based on being able to produce that much power. Now that the power is gone they are left with an overly draggy car that does not have enough downforce either. They never had enough downforce last year either. They will be stuck at this performance level until 2022 at least.

[TheGiantHogweed]

Perez been given a warning by the stewards for impeding. Not great given he's just done similar by ignoring blue flags at the previous race. He was also apparently warned that another car was approaching and that he unnecessarily impeded it.

[mikeyg123]

Perez been given a warning by the stewards for impeding. Not great given he's just done similar by ignoring blue flags at the previous race. He was also apparently warned that another car was approaching and that he unnecessarily impeded it.

Hilarious that anyone gets a reprimand for impeding Grosjean in a practice session.

[lucifers]

both ferraris out of Q3

[lucifers]

dam riccardo first Q3 run puts him into 3rd

[TheGiantHogweed]

Well bottas was lucky with the advantage his car had today it seems. This track may not be too hard to get by if he gets a slightly better start though.

[F1_Ernie]

What a lap by Hamilton, was great to watch

[Fiki]

I wonder how much slower the new lap record would have been, had the FIA insisted on track limits.

[Invade]

I'm curious about Bottas' PU mode. Almost 2 tenths down on Hamilton in S1, I wonder if he used Strat-3 to Hamilton's Strat-2? Regardless, excellent from Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo.

[mikeyg123]

I wonder how much slower the new lap record would have been, had the FIA insisted on track limits.

I don't understand why they are now monitoring track limits but not on the actual track. They've effectively widened the exit of all the corners. Was this really necessary?