Birthday boy Bottas edges Belgian FP1; double disaster for Haas

Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were separated by just eight-hundredths of a second at the end of an intriguing first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix.

For the third successive FP1, Bottas led the way, but in trailing Mercedes team-mate Hamilton by 43 points in the drivers' standings, the Finn knows he needs to translate that into a desperately needed victory at Spa to retain any hope of maintaining a title challenge.

Regardless, it was a nice birthday tonic for Bottas to help celebrate his 31st, edging Hamilton by 0.069secs following a lap of one minute 44.493s.

As for Red Bull's Verstappen, on a run of five successive podiums and who is 37 points behind Hamilton, the Dutch driver finished 0.081s behind Bottas, suggesting the trio will be closely matched this weekend around the longest track on the F1 calendar at just over seven kilometres.

Hamilton did require a rear-wing change late in the session after losing the gurney caused by considerable vibrations on his car after exiting the final corner, while Bottas suffered a front-left puncture in the closing moments.

Over the team radio, Bottas said: "I'm getting used to these punctures. I had one on my road car last week as well."

As for Haas, the session was a disaster as the team was forced to change elements of the power unit in both cars, and more frustratingly due to different issues.

Romain Grosjean initially complained of "no power" on his second installation lap, leading to a return to the garage from which he failed to emerge again during the session, while team-mate Kevin Magnussen managed only one installation lap.

After 40 minutes of the session, and via a Twitter message, the team confirmed: "The engine will have to be removed from Kevin’s car. Unfortunately, he won’t be back out in #FP1."

Eight minutes later, Haas confirmed the double-whammy, adding on Twitter: "Sadly Romain’s session is also over. There’ll likely be a Power Unit change on his car too."

A third Ferrari-powered car in Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi also failed to set a time, with the Italian managing only two installation laps, and with no word from the team as to the reason why he was confined to the garage.

As for the Ferrari works team, on a circuit where Charles Leclerc triumphed last year, the Monégasque and team-mate Sebastian Vettel languished in 14th and 15th, 1.2s and 1.6s adrift respectively.

Behind the leading trio, Racing Point duo Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll again fared strongly, with the Mexican fourth quickest and 0.136s down, with his team-mate a further quarter-of-a-second off the pace.

Red Bull's Alex Albon, who has continually struggled to keep pace with Verstappen, was sixth on the timesheet and 0.375s adrift.

Renault and McLaren completed the top 10, with Esteban Ocon ahead of Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, in that order, the latter 0.781s behind Bottas.

Of the 17 drivers that set times, Williams duo Nicholas Latifi and George Russell were slowest, both around two seconds down.

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