Max Verstappen opened the 2026 Belgian GP practice weekend with something Red Bull badly needed: a fast lap from a rear wing that was not causing fresh concern. The four-time Formula 1 champion led FP1 at Spa-Francorchamps in 1:47.070, his first practice-session lead of the season.
Lewis Hamilton finished 0.145 seconds behind for Ferrari, with teammate Charles Leclerc another 0.062 seconds back. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar took fourth, roughly a quarter of a second off Verstappen, giving the team an encouraging result after it returned to a conventional rear-wing specification.
It was also the first opening practice of the season not led by Mercedes or Ferrari. One session does not settle a Grand Prix, particularly at Spa, but Red Bull’s reset at least began without another aerodynamic drama.
Why did Red Bull abandon its rotating rear wing?
Red Bull parked the wing nicknamed the “Macarena” after Verstappen suffered crashes during the Austrian and British Grand Prix weekends. The design rotated under load, and Verstappen described the resulting problem as “super dangerous,” according to The Race.
Before running began in Belgium, Verstappen confirmed the team would return to familiar equipment. “We’ll go back on the old one and see when the latest one is ready again to be used,” he said.
Autosport reported that Red Bull plans to revive the rotating design once modifications are complete. The FIA is examining both Red Bull’s version and a similar concept used by Ferrari. For Spa, Red Bull’s only declared update involved revised rear-wing pylons.
The early result matters beyond the stopwatch. A safer, more predictable car can give a driver confidence through Spa’s high-speed sections, and Verstappen immediately showed that the conventional setup did not automatically mean surrendering performance. Whether that remains true in qualifying and over a race distance is the rather important next question.
How did Verstappen take control of FP1?
Hamilton initially set the pace on medium tyres with a 1:50.438. Verstappen quickly went faster before Hadjar moved ahead with a 1:48.918 on soft tyres.
Hadjar and Verstappen exchanged first place as the session developed. On mediums, Verstappen beat his teammate by 0.227 seconds, only for Hadjar to respond and edge ahead by 0.081. The French driver remained fastest at the 20-minute mark.
Mercedes championship leader Kimi Antonelli then took over on soft tyres, beating Hadjar by 0.175 seconds. George Russell produced the fastest sector shortly afterward but ended that run around a third of a second behind his teammate.
Once more drivers switched to the soft compound, Red Bull returned to the top. Verstappen went around a quarter of a second faster than Hadjar and left Antonelli about half a second behind. Hamilton then split the Mercedes drivers before Leclerc climbed to third.
Ferrari’s final improvements established the leading order. Hamilton closed to within 0.145 seconds of Verstappen, while Leclerc finished 0.207 seconds away. Hadjar held fourth.
Oscar Piastri placed fifth for McLaren, 0.452 seconds off the lead, followed by Antonelli, Russell and Lando Norris. Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top 10, with Bortoleto 1.336 seconds behind Verstappen.
Why are grid penalties already shaping the weekend?
Hadjar’s soft-tyre pace offered limited guidance for qualifying because he will start from the back of the grid. Formula 1 confirmed that his car received a new internal-combustion engine, turbocharger and exhaust, taking him beyond his permitted allocation.
Norris also faces a 10-place penalty after taking a fourth control-electronics unit. The reigning champion completed only two installation laps early in FP1 and was the final driver to record a time. His first soft-tyre effort left him 2.803 seconds behind Hadjar, although he recovered to finish eighth.
The McLaren driver entered the weekend fifth in the championship on 97 points. His power-electronics allocation had already been affected by failures or problems in China, Japan and Monaco. McLaren chose to make the change at Spa because passing is generally more achievable there than at Hungary or Zandvoort.
Lance Stroll has joined Norris and Hadjar among the penalized drivers. The Aston Martin racer received a 10-place grid drop for using a new MGU-K. Reliability is therefore creating an unusual strategic split before qualifying has even started: some drivers are chasing grid position, while others are preparing for recovery drives.
What else did teams learn from the opening hour?
Piastri’s session ended with a slow return to the pits because of a hydraulic-pressure problem. McLaren planned to investigate the issue before FP2, adding another concern to a weekend already complicated by Norris’s penalty.
Jak Crawford, driving Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin during FP1, finished last and more than six seconds off Verstappen’s time.
The session also opened a substantial development contest. The Race counted 21 declared upgrades across the field, including four each from Haas and Racing Bulls, plus three each from Mercedes and Williams. Ferrari and Aston Martin brought no declared updates.
FP1 offered Red Bull the most immediate reassurance. Its older wing specification looked stable, and Verstappen was fastest despite expectations that the change could leave the team behind its rivals. The result does not prove the aerodynamic problem is solved, but it does give Red Bull a workable foundation. After two weekends in which the newer design contributed to crashes, a quiet hour at the top of the timing screen carried more weight than usual.
