Max Verstappen topped the first practice session for the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix and was immediately on the pace Oscar Piastri was his closest rival.
And while that might be good news for the Dutchman, he has to deal with a ten-place grid penalty this weekend as Red Bull have bolted a fifth new Internal Combustion Engine to his RB20, one more that is allowed by the regulations per season.
However, if he maintains his early form, Verstappen can surely fight for the win come Sunday, as he has done that before, he won from 14th on the grid back in 2022.
Second fastest was Piastri in the McLaren who was over half a second behind Verstappen while Alex Albon was a suprising third in the Williams.
George Russell was fourth fastest in the Mercedes, who brought some upgrades this weekend, but the Briton was not happy with the balance of his W15 over the long runs.
Lewis Hamilton, who reported bouncing on his long runs, was fifth fastest, while Charles Leclerc was sixth, followed by Sergio Perez in seventh.
Lando Norris did not have a decent session and ended up in eighth ahead of Carlos Sainz in ninth and Lance Stroll in tenth.
Buildup towards FP1
And so, Formula 1's longest season to date - 24 races - has jumped the halfway mark as the sport heads to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian GP, the final race before the summer break.
Ten races remain after this one, and based on how the season have been developing up to now, those ten grands prix will be something to look forward to as McLaren continue their charge, Mercedes their resurgence, Ferrari... Well whatever Ferrari do while Red Bull try to reassert their dominance.
It will be interesting to see how Verstappen and Co react after their nightmare in Hungary, while Perez has this final chance to prove he deserves his seat, at least for the rest of the season.
As for other team news, Alpine have been in the spotlight with changes on the horizon as they seem to be on their way to dropping their power unit operation and become a Mercedes customer, while their boss Bruno Famin is reportedly on his way out.
On the driver front, Esteban Ocon has been confirmed at Haas while Nico Hulkenberg was shocked to know the one who he thought would be his boss won't after all as Andreas Seidl was ousted from Audi's F1 project in favor of ex-Ferrari man Mattia Binotto.
Interesting news all around, as for the racing, Spa has been resurfaced ahead of this weekend's grand prix which means teams and drivers have an additional factor to deal with - new grip levels.
Pirelli has brought their mid-range compounds: C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium) and C4 (Soft).
As for car upgrades, only seven teams brought new parts to their cars, starting with Mercedes who have a new diffuser, floor edge, beam wing, front wing, and Halo.
Ferrari have new lower downforce front and rear wings as per Spa's requirements, as McLaren have brought track specific beam wing, rear wing, and lower drag rear brake duct furniture.
Alpine, in addition to their special livery, have new front wing, Coke/engine cover, beam wing, rear wing, mirror, and revised rear brake ducts all track specific.
VCARB have low drag rear wing, beam wing, and winglet profiles on the rear corner, while Haas have track specific rear and beam wings.
Sauber continued their car upgrades with new mirrors, floor fence, front wing, rear and beam wings.
Red Bull who upgraded their RB20 in Hungary will not use all those parts this weekend, as they are not intended to the low downforce requirement of Spa.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in clear conditions with track temperatures at 36 degrees Celsius while air temperature was 22 degrees.
The teams started the session with a mix of Hard and Medium compounds.
A few minutes into the session, Alpine called Ocon back into the pits, as it seems there was an issue with his Deadpool & Wolverine liveried A524.
Ocon's car was soon up on the jacks in the garage as the Alpine mechanics started working on it.
Daniel Ricciardo soon had a spin at Turn 1 and just managed to avoid the barriers, but flat spotted his Hard tyres.
As the session progressed, the Alpine mechanics kept working on his car, as it was reported that the issue was a "suspected water leak".
Leclerc was not happy with his engineer and told him: "Don't speak on fast laps." The engineer Bryan Bozzi is a new one and had been with the Monegasque since May.
Some setup changes towards the midway mark of the session as now the Soft tyres make their appearance. Russell goes out first on the red-walled tyres as Verstappen soon follows.
Russell jumped to the top, but soon Verstappen went over eighth tenths faster, while Piastri went second fastest after that, slashing the gap to the #1 Red Bull by a tenth.
Perez on the other hand was almost one second off his teammate's pace in his first lap on Softs. He reported that he is struggling to know what the car is doing on corner entries - at all speeds.
"I don't have the feeling of what is going on," the Mexican complained.
Norris had a massive lockup on his run on Softs and was only eighth fastest.
With 20 minutes remaining, Alpine confirmed that Ocon would not be rejoining the action, as the car needs a long time to repair.
At this point of the session, the teams were back out on longer runs with higher fuel loads.
Fernando Alonso asked whether there was something wrong with his engine as he was surprised from his speed in sector one, while Russell complained about rear end stability on his W15.
Hamilton had a moment at Turn 5 and went straight at the Les Combes Chicane and soon reported: "I've got to come in. The bouncing is really bad."
Yuki Tsunoda was suffering as well and reported he had oversteer in some corners and understeer in others.
The session was concluded by practice starts.
How they finished
Verstappen posted a 1:43.372 to go fastest of all, and ominously 0.531s faster than Piastri who was second fastest, while Albon was 0.727s off the pace in third.
Russell was eight and half tenths behind in fourth and 0.054s ahead of teammate Hamilton in fifth.
Leclerc was 0.934s slower than Verstappen in sixth and 0.023s ahead of Perez who was way off Verstappen in seventh.
Norris was 1.043s off the pace in eighth and 0.259s faster than Sainz in ninth as Stroll was tenth.
Belgian GP FP1 Classification
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