 Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda (pictured) during free practice at Spa Francorchamps. Credit: Kym Illman First day out in Spa and Max Verstappen seems to have found his rhythm, which is no surprise as he's won here the last 3 years. However he faces a 10 place grid penalty for taking on a new power unit. Yuki Tsunoda also with new car components also finds himself starting from the back of the grid on sunday. In other news Esteban Ocon has signed for Haas, 2025, with a multi-year contract. But for this weekend Ocon and Gasly sport a special livery to celebrate Alpines sponsor, Ryan Reynolds new movie, Deadpool & Wolverine. News in the afternoon, after FP1, would also arise at Alpine, with Team Principal Bruno Famin announced to be leaving the Endstone based team by the end of August after just short of 12 months in the job. Famin will take up the role of all other motorsport activities of the Renault Group at Viry-Chatillion. The team said in a statement on X: "A new team principal will be announced in due course."
There was a chance of rain how ever skys stayed clear for the first session of that, with track temperatures around 38 degrees celsius mark. The field headed out on a mix of hard and medium, where Max went fastest first. Ocon on the other hand was forced to back into the pits, as his team try's to fix reliability issues that turned into a suspected water leak. Ocon remains in the garage for the res of the session. A continuing issue that has ended Gasly's past two race's early. Also on hards AM, Williams and the RB boys with K Mag and Bottas, the rest on mediums. Coming up to the half way point of the session Gasly finds himself on track alone as everyone else is in to change tyres. The McLaren boys pushing hard on their mediums as they aim for another weekend of max points, Norris locks up and he can only go eighth fastest today while Piastri manages to go second fastest. George Russell topped at one point but over Max dominated, ending the session fastest on hard tyres. Alex Albon will be pleased with third, even on softs, however more work needs to be done for Williams with Logan down in p15. FP2  After the news at Alpine with Bruno Famin departing his role as Team Principal by the end of August, it was time for action in Free Practice 2. Esteban Ocon would need a clean session of running in free practice 2 and it was his teammate Pierre Gasly who was the first driver of 20 to enter the circuit. Verstappen would pick up from where he left off in free practice, as in the early stages he would go to the top of the timing sheets. On the mediums, his time of 1:43.456 would be the time the drivers would all aim for. McLaren's Lando Norris would manage to sit in second place. All drivers would eventually decide to set a lap time on the soft tyres, in some sort of qualifying simulation run. Oscar Piastri would be the driver who would take the top spot, and would hold it for a decent portion of the session. F1's newest race winner was just two thousandths of a second (0.002s) clear of Verstappen. Piastri would be dislodged by his teammate only, as Lando Norris would set an impressive lap time for 1:42.260 and that time would be unbeaten at Spa Francorchamps as Friday descended into the evening in Belgium. A McLaren 1-2 is how the session would finish with Norris ahead of Piastri. Max Verstappen completed the top three at the end of the second hour of practice. Verstappen was third with his teammate Sergio Perez also making it into the top 10, with a ninth place finish. As for the Ferrari drivers, it was fourth for Charles Leclerc, who was just ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz. Differing results for Mercedes as it was sixth for George Russell and 10th for Lewis Hamilton. Esteban Ocon for Alpine was seventh, ahead of Kevin Magnussen in eighth for Haas. A lot of excitement and a lot of great track action in Formula 1 to come at Spa Francorchamps, the last round before the summer break, and round 14 of the World Championship. Action continues on Saturday for the free practice 3 and qualifying sessions. 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship: Round 14 - Belgian Grand Prix free practice 2 result
Bronwen Jones  Brandon Whiteside 
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