Kimi Raikkonen ended the first day of free practice for the Belgian Grand Prix fastest of all, the Ferrari driver showing handy pace at a venue which has been kind to him over the years.
The veteran Finn set the pace with a 1:43.355 around the daunting Spa-Francorchamps where he has won four times in his career, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton 0.168 of a second down in the Mercedes with teammate Valtteri Bottas in third a couple of tenths adrift.
Raikkonen's time was a full second faster than Sebastian Vettel's best in the morning FP1 session, in the afternoon the German was only good for fifth place, 0.774 of a second shy of his teammate at the top of the timesheets.
Max Verstappen was fifth fastest suggesting that Red Bull in race trim may be in with a chance, but qualifying is likely to be between Ferrari and Mercedes who keep their big guns holstered until when it matters in qualifying. Daniel Ricciardo was sixth in the sister car.
Down in Formula 1.5 it was Sergio Perez who was best of the rest in sixth albeit 1.3 seconds down on the top time but a whopping eight-tenths of a second up on Renault's Carlos Sainz.
Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc were treated to some handy pace in the Sauber, the Ferrari powered pair finishing ninth and tenth respectively.
It was another miserable day for McLaren with Fernando Alonso down in 16th after giving up his seat for FP1 to the team's young gun Lando Norris who was good for 18th in the morning.
Stoffel Vandoorne had technical issues that limited his FP1 track time, in the afternoon he did more laps but was still slowest of all in the McLaren.
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