Formula 1 Live Ticker: Investigation against Nico Hülkenberg

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Only P13 and P17 today and Nico Hülkenberg admits: “The top 10 might be a bit further away than the last two times, but let’s see what we can achieve tomorrow.”

He explains: “Sectors 1 and 3 are high-speed sectors, and sector 2 is the one where grip matters. I think this weekend it will probably be a bit more challenging here,” says Hülkenberg.

The German is still waiting for his first world championship point this year.

The world championship leader is only partially happy with Friday despite P1. “In the first practice we had big difficulties, much bigger than expected,” he reports and explains that the Mercedes slid heavily.

“I can’t go into too much detail, but overall the car slid quite a lot, and I just had trouble finding confidence in the car,” says Antonelli.

In FT2 it went better. Still, there is “a lot of work” ahead because the competitors are also fast.

The Dutchman has been more dissatisfied on a Friday before. After P3 he explains: “For me it went quite well, I actually had no major problems. The car was in a pretty good window.”

“Probably in FT2 the actual gap will be a bit clearer, but that’s nothing shocking or unexpected,” says Verstappen, who was 0.472 seconds off the best time at the end.

“It is also quite a demanding track in terms of energy management. It seems we are a bit slower on the straights than some of our competitors, but in terms of balance, it’s going quite well,” he emphasizes.

Not only Nico Hülkenberg faces trouble, Ferrari has also been investigated. For the Scuderia, it concerns that two sets of tires for Hamilton and Leclerc respectively were not correctly returned to Pirelli after FT1.

The case is now with the race stewards.

Recently Nikola Tsolov made headlines in Formula 2. Today in qualifying, however, the Red Bull junior only landed P4, while the pole went to Ferrari junior Rafael Camara. Oliver Goethe was 14th.

Expert Karun Chandhok believes the balance of power could completely reverse tomorrow. On Sky he explains that the gaps at the top are unusually large in places.

“The teams will work intensively on calculations for energy deployment and try to find the best solution,” he explains.

“A lot of work will be done overnight in the factories. I don’t think it’s a given that we will see the same picture tomorrow,” he says.

He would be “surprised if Verstappen were so far behind Antonelli.” The Dutchman was almost half a second behind at the end of the day.

Two things from FT1 we want to add: Carlos Sainz received a warning for crossing the white line at the pit entry. Additionally, Aston Martin must pay 100 euros because Jak Crawford was clocked at 80.1 km/h in the pit lane. The limit is exactly 80.

Report

Result

Overall result Friday

In ten minutes the second practice in Spa will start and we will shift the action back to our session ticker for now. So there is a short break here, after the end of the training it will continue here as usual with the voices on Friday.

And if you want to know how to watch Formula 1 live streaming during the Belgium weekend, you can find out here!

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You have already noticed, there were no big topics in the press conference today. Let’s see what the action on the track still brings. The press conference is over and in an hour FT2 will continue.

The press conference is now about the new car for 2027. All team representatives reveal that they are of course already working on it. However, no one wants to reveal specifically what percentage of focus has already been placed on 2027.

We already talked about Nikola Tsolov earlier, who currently leads Formula 2. Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane says about him that he will surely make it to Formula 1 sooner or later.

When it will happen, he cannot say. The Racing Bulls have not yet officially confirmed a driver for 2027.

Audi junior Freddie Slater secured pole position in Formula 3. The session was stopped after an accident and then not restarted.

Fortunately, no driver was hurt. There was just a large group formed where everyone was looking for a slipstream and driving slowly.

It was only a matter of time before there would be a rear-end collision …

In five minutes the press conference of the team representatives will start in Spa. The following participants are present today:

Allan McNish (Audi)
Graeme Lowdon (Cadillac)
Alan Permane (Racing Bulls)

If there are exciting statements, we will deliver them here as usual.

An investigation is underway against Carlos Sainz because he crossed the white line at the pit entry once in FT1. James Vowles has meanwhile explained on Sky how this happened.

“That’s on us,” admits the team boss and explains: “Carlos had decided to come to the pits. However, the battery level was very low. It was actually at zero.”

“That’s why we had to do another lap to charge it,” explains Vowles. But Sainz only received this instruction too late. Now a warning is likely.

The rain has now arrived in Spa. However, it currently only affects the Formula 3 qualifying, Formula 1 had its training still in dry conditions. And FT2 is only in about two hours. We are of course keeping an eye on the situation.

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