What we learned from Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc may be hoping for a case of third time's a charm at the Belgian Grand Prix, having underlined his and Ferrari's credentials as favourites for success at Spa-Francorchamps.

After Sebastian Vettel had led the way in Friday's first practice session Leclerc was six tenths clear at the top of the timesheets in FP2, building fine momentum into the weekend.

Leclerc has seen strong showings in Bahrain and Austria this year dissipate into missing out on a maiden F1 race win in agonising circumstances, while a promising weekend in Azerbaijan was ruined by a qualifying crash.

On a track that had been expected to play into the SF90's hands, there may be no better time for Leclerc to break his duck and secure Ferrari's first win of the season.

Ferrari on form in the forest

Leclerc's time was four tenths quicker than the lap record set by Vettel for pole two years ago, with rain having prevented drivers from lowering the benchmark last year.

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton were in close quarters, albeit eight tenths adrift, suggesting that the Scuderia may be in a fight between themselves for Saturday success, providing they cane steer clear of errors.

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Hamilton fastest in the middle

But he's almost a second slower than Leclerc overall with 25 minutes left in FP2#F1 #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/k9rLekEkay

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 30, 2019

Leclerc took pole position at Spa in Formula 2 during his championship season in 2017, although he could not win either of the races and his grand prix last year lasted a few hundred metres before he had Fernando Alonso's McLaren skating across the top of his car in a scary incident.

Despite the gap to his team-mate in quali sims, Vettel has good form at Spa previously and was the winner here a year ago, although he is without a race victory in the year since.

Despite Ferrari's strong one-lap performance, Bottas and Hamilton's long-run pace was the best in the field, suggesting a good race could be on the cards even if the Scuderia take pole, or even lock out the front row, with a huge tow in play down the Kemmel Straight.

Albon settles in nicely

There was plenty of focus on Alexander Albon after his promotion to Red Bull and sitting within a tenth of a second of Max Verstappen in FP1 was certainly a fine start.

Albon is lumbered with a grid penalty this weekend, which will see him start the race from the back of the field, and as such his FP2 focused largely on long-run practice as he is unlikely to participate too much in qualifying.

Verstappen was over a second off the pace in FP2 as he appeared to suffer from a return of engine braking problems which have affected him at races earlier this year.

Pierre Gasly, demoted from Red Bull after a dismal start to 2019, didn't have the happiest of returns to Toro Rosso, clocing 18th and 17th fastest across Friday's two sessions.

Racing (on) Point

Sergio Perez started last year's race in fourth place and Racing Point had more reason to smile after Friday as the Mexican ran fifth-fastest in FP2, ahead of Verstappen's Red Bull.

But things turned glum at the end of the session as Perez's engine seemed to go pop, potentially necessitating a change which could drop him to the back of the grid. Perez's furious reaction certainly suggested a serious issue was at hand.

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There's another hot Racing Point out there

This time it's Sergio Perez and this time we can spot the flames 😮 🔥#F1 #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/xd8ws0NlPm

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 30, 2019

Lance Stroll was also in the top 10 in each session, with the high-speed nature of Spa playing into the pink cars' favour.

Stroll has a five-place grid drop hanging over him this weekend but a second venture out of Q1 this year looks a possibility.

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