Allan McNish
BBC Radio 5 live Formula 1 analyst

It's good to hear Esteban Ocon admit he made a mistake there, it shows a maturity.

Welcome to F1 Esteban Ocon.

The Frenchman, who will make his race debut weekend, drives over a cone in the pits as he misses his pit-stop.

It's a tiny cone, the sort dad football coaches layout on parks thinking they're Jose Mourinho.

Hopefully Esteban has that wobble out the way - he comes on the radio to admit he made a mistake. Good lad, chin up.

ryan quirk: Even if Lewis does take it easy in qualifying he'd probably still be second before his grid penalties...

There's 50 minutes of your Belgian first practice remaining and we look like this in the top 10:

Rosberg, Hamilton, Perez, Hulkenberg, Vettel, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Bottas, Gutierrez, Verstappen.

Hmmm. Maybe not.

Nico Rosberg still leads with a 1:48.348.

Two notes to that lap - it was done on the super soft tyres, with few cars heading out on those so far.

But it was also set with the halo attached. Teams will still be working out the full aerodynamic impact of the safety device.

In terms of the halo - we've all had enough of Beyonce references now, haven't we?

Phil Freeman: If Hamilton does take a 2nd engine penalty and will start at the back, will we see him push in qualifying or take it easy?

Funny you should ask that, Phil. I was thinking the same myself.

Maybe he could take in the sights of Spa, enjoy a Trappist beer perhaps?

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Getty Images

Sauber’s future was secured shortly before the summer break, following a takeover by an investment group. The first fruits of that new relationship are being seen this weekend, with the car sporting its first major upgrade package of the season, which features a new front wing with short nose, floor and front and rear brake ducts.

Ignore the text within this tweet - it was tweeted before practice started - and instead sit back and take in the view. Gawjus.

Lewis Hamilton has a first lap in anger and it's 0.730secs down on Nico Rosberg.

Although the world champion has very much taken the foot off the pedal, so to speak, and has the pace of a Sunday shopper on the way to the DIY store.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, BBC Sport

Pirelli has brought some development tyres to this race, which it says are “modified to even further protect the tyre from possible consequences generated by accidental multiple impacts on kerbs or other external bodies”.

The context for this are the high-speed failures suffered by Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg at this race last year. Those were blamed on external cuts and one of the potential causes was the edge of the track at Raidillon, the final left-hander over the crest at Eau Rouge.

This has not been changed since last year and - as the photo shows - retains a significant height change between kerb and track, which the cars will be running over.

An extra consideration this year is that the teams are all aiming to run softer tyres than have ever been run at Spa in the Pirelli era - with most focusing their choices on the soft and super-soft, largely because the medium is “quite a lot slower”, as Vettel put it.

Jenson Button ducked a question on whether he was concerned about the tyres this weekend, but it may be a situation to keep an eye on.

Nico Rosberg pits and comes back out again, this time without the Pirelli prototype tyres he had been running with at the start of first practice.

Blackburn Lad: So if Hamilton takes all those penalties he may as well come last in Q1, save tyres and concentrate on the race.

So here come some times and it's Nico Rosberg straight to the top of the pile with a 1:49.481.

No competitive lap from Lewis Hamilton yet - Kimi Raikkonen sits in P2, a little over a second behind Rosberg.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat comes back from the summer break with his Formula 1 career hanging by a thread. Since being demoted from Red Bull to the junior team back in May, the Russian’s confidence and form have slumped, and he seemed completely adrift at the last race in Germany a month ago.

He insisted on Thursday that the summer break “has been good for me - it feel like it is OK for me now, come here, do my job and drive”.

But his tone of voice was still very downcast. Can he at least begin to match team-mate Carlos Sainz in these final nine races? If not, the chances of him being replaced next year by Frenchman Pierre Gasly, the next Red Bull protege on the production line, must be high.

Image source, .

Here's what we're racing on today.

Look out for the treacherous Eau Rouge/Raidillon which runs from turns two to four.

Who has the chutzpah to take it flat out?

We get the first look of Esteban Ocon in a Manor as he heads out of the pits and on to the famous track of Soa.

Fine looking car the Manor, befitting of the glorious Ardennes Forest skyline.

So, as it stands, just a 15-place grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton. But it's expcted he will make further power unit changes over the weekend and take the double and a 30-place grid penalty in one whack.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Mercedes confirm Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have fresh power-units - that's a sixth turbo and MGU-H for Hamilton and a 15-place penalty.

More changes - and more penalties - are expected as the weekend develops