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Penalties for the Belgian Grand Prix.
After using up his four internal combustion engine (ICE) for the season, Max Verstappen has taken his fifth power unit component at the Belgian Grand Prix, taking a 10 place grid penalty in the process.
Yuki Tsunoda is also now on a fifth ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K as well as his third energy store and set of control electronics.
F1’s regulations state that should a driver use more power unit elements than the number permitted, a grid place penalty will be imposed upon them at the first event where each additional element is used.
The first time any of the seven power unit elements exceeds its allocation, a 10-place grid penalty will be imposed. For each subsequent instance, a five-place grid drop will be applied.
Since all penalties at the same event are cumulative, if a driver receives penalties totalling more than 15 grid places, Tsunoda will be required to start the race from the back of the grid.
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Free Practice One
As the session commenced, George Russell lead the pack onto the track at 13:30 local time.
Shortly after, the RB of Daniel Ricciardo had a spin at La Source narrowly avoiding the barriers.
https://x.com/F1/status/1816800058156704154
Following that incident, Esteban Ocon was also called into the pits, as he suggested there was an issue with his car, later being revealed that there was a water leak which pulled him into the pits for the rest of the session.
Ten minutes in, the reigning champion Verstappen set the benchmark of 1.44.530 on the hards followed by both the McLarens of Norris and Piastri and Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz.
After many long laps clocked in by the drivers, they swapped onto the soft compound tyres around the halfway point for some fast laps.
This put Russell on top which was soon snatched again by Verstappen with a 1.43.372, eight tenths clear of the Mercedes driver.
Unlike the Dutchman, who is very comfortable in his position, this will be an important race for his teammate Sergio Perez as his seat is on the line after underperforming for multiple races in a row. Perez was seemingly feeling discomfort with his RB20 over the team radio.
The Ferraris have also confirmed that they are still facing issue with bouncing on the straights, which have seemed to be the main time loss for the Italian squad.
They were not the only ones with problems as Fernando Alonso was on the radio confirming with his race engineer if his engine was alright after setting a slow first sector time.
“Is the engine okay? How can we be slower in the first sector?"
Max Verstappen had an untouchable session as the recent Hungarian Grand Prix winner, Oscar Piastri took second on the timesheets five tenths off the Dutch three-time champion.
Alex Albon slotted his Williams into third followed by both the Mercedes’ of Russell and Hamilton with the younger Brit in fourth. However, he was still complaining during the session that he had "no rear at all", while Hamilton brought up excessive "bouncing" several times.
Charles Leclerc went sixth quickest in the Ferrari with Perez in P7 nearly a second away from his teammate who lead the timesheet.
Champioship contender Lando Norris had a quiet session as he took eighth place with his old teammate Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll completing the top ten.
Pierre Gasly was right behind in 11th, with Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas and the Williams of Logan Sargeant rounding up the top 15.
Yuki Tsunoda took P16 while both the Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen locked out the ninth row with Zhou Guanyu closing this session last as Ocon did not set a time after the water leak issue at the start of the practice.
As the first part of the intense track action on the Belgian Grand Prix came to an end, the second practice will start at 17:00 local time.
