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World championship leader Kimi Antonelli was sixth fastest for Mercedes, one place behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastre.
Italian championship rival and team-mate George Russell was eighth fastest, 0.356s behind Antonelli.
Antonelli leads the championship by 25 points heading into the season’s halfway point, depending on whether the two Middle East tournaments to end the season could be played out in a battle between the US/Israel and Iran.
Verstappen’s speed came despite Red Bull reverting to a standard rear wing, refining the ‘flip-flop’ or ‘somersault’ pattern that had caused the Dutchman’s high-speed crash in the last two races.
The wing is where Red Bull started the season, with the flap opening up for a straight-line mode on last year’s DRS assist instead of rotating on an axis more than 180 degrees.
The old wing is said to cost around 0.2 seconds around the Spa-Francorchamps compared to the new design, which could return for next weekend’s race in Hungary.
The session was relatively incident-free. Liam Lawson came closest to danger early in the session when he ran just wide after a great dominating moment on Stavelot.
Piastri suffered a hydraulic pressure problem late in the session, forcing him to pit on track with a minute left in the session.
