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The Dutchman topped the opening hour of running from Oscar Piastri with Alex Albon a surprise third for Williams.
But while the timesheets told the story of the Red Bull Racing’s single lap pace, and not an especially accurate one, more impressive was Verstappen’s long run pace.
However, during the session, it was confirmed Verstappen would take a grid penalty for Sunday’s race. That will see the Dutchman drop 10 places from wherever he qualifies on Saturday.
On hard tyres, the championship leader was the early pace-setter, over a second faster than Oscar Piastri (on a set of mediums) who was second best after 10 minutes.
Midway through the session, Verstappen completed a low fuel run, improving from 1:44.524s on hard tyres to 1:43.372s.
He was almost a full second faster than team-mate Sergio Perez who was complaining of a lack of feeling at corner entry.
Once the single lap run was complete, focus was swapped to high fuel running, with Verstappen’s pace in a class of one.
His times remained both fast and consistent, without the handling issues that blighted him a week ago in Hungary.
Second fastest in the early laps, Piastri struggled for rear grip in the early running, drifting through the Fagnes chicane at one point.
The Australian headed team-mate Lando Norris by two-tenths at that stage as the team evaluated its new low-drag rear wing.
The pair even slipped down the order slightly as Mercedes completed their early runs, before Piastri jumped back up to second with his qualifying simulation – half a second back from Verstappen.
However, there was only half a tenth between him and Mercedes’ George Russell, the two operations closely matched but seemingly a step behind Red Bull Racing.
Russell began the soft tyre running with 33 minutes remaining, finding three-tenths in the first sector alone.
He completed the lap with a 1:44.225s, an improvement of some seven-tenths on his medium tyre best but only three-tenths faster than Verstappen’s earlier effort.
It left him fastest, but only until Verstappen completed his soft tyre run.
On a long run late in the session, Hamilton complained of bouncing in his car, such that he was forced back into the pits.
A busy start saw Charles Leclerc log 10 laps in the opening 20 minutes, with Carlos Sainz baking nine in the same period.
But the duo appeared not to have the outright pace of their rivals, and ended the session around nine tenths back from Verstappen’s soft tyre best.
Daniel Ricciardo was 13th fastest at the flag after he survived an early spin as he exited La Source.
He ran slightly wide on the exit of the right-hand hairpin, the car getting on top of a damp kerb before skidding across the road – somehow avoiding the barrier.
Across the garage, it was confirmed Yuki Tsunoda will start from the rear of the grid after taking a swathe of new power unit elements as he ended the session 16th.
Esteban Ocon’s session came to an end with just one lap on the board as the team worked to identify and fix a water leak.
That necessitated the removal of the floor to get to the offending area, which meant the Frenchman failed to record a timed lap in the session.
No such problems blighted Williams, with Albon a surprise third fastest following the qualifying runs.
He was just seven-tenths back from Verstappen’s session-topping time, and only two-tenths back from Piastri in second – the latter point suggesting McLaren was yet to wind its car up.
Also of note was the significant pace difference between drivers on a normal lap or a cooldown lap – the latter circulating in around three-minutes, near twice the usual lap time.
While there were few issues during the session, it’s a point that may become an issue come qualifying on Saturday.
A second hour of practice follows, beginning at 17:00 local time (01:00 AEST).
