Title rivals Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc will start the Belgian Grand Prix from the back of the grid. The Red Bull and Ferrari stars are two of six drivers to be penalised for using too many engine parts. Leclerc and Verstappen finished first practice second and third, behind the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. It was a session truncated by a 12-minute red-flag period to recover the stranded Haas of Kevin Magnussen, after it broke down on the run between the opening La Source hairpin and the Eau Rouge sweepers. Verstappen was comfortably faster than anyone else for much of the session, after running the soft tyres early on, before being overhauled by the Ferraris later on. Verstappen was 0.217secs off Sainz in third place, with Russell 0.858secs off the pace while trying a significant aerodynamic upgrade.

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