Max Verstappen was definitely the star of the show on the first day of the Belgian Grand Prix, with an impressive turn out of Dutch and Belgian fans supporting their local hero at what is effectively his home race.
Verstappen - who was born in Belgium and raised in the Netherlands - is racing at Spa for the first time since his elevation to the Red Bull team, and for the time in Belgium since he claimed his maiden victory at Barcelona in May.
"Very happy to be first here in front of all your fans," agreed the 18-year-old sensation. "It's of course great that I could see a lot of fans cheering me on with their flags, it gives you a lot of motivation.
"It was a good day," he continued. "This track is not easy to set up the car with the long straights but then also the fast inner section, so I was finding my way a bit.
"Once I got that balance right the time was there, the fans were cheering me on which gives you a lot of motivation and it’s great to see so many already on a Friday."
Verstappen did have one brief scare during the morning when the car went sideways in turn 13, but he was able to hold on to it and avert a big accident.
"It was a good drift, I have to test my reflexes sometimes!" he laughed afterwards.
Despite finishing the day faster than anyone else, Verstappen cautioned against expectation that he might be able to pull off his second Grand Prix victory this weekend.
"Difficult to say yet. I don’t know where they are. If we are very close and we hopefully get a good start we will have to wait and see. They will be very competitive, some other teams are also very competitive.
"We can definitely improve even more. We have to wait and see what they do but so far I think we have a good car and a very good starting point."
The surprisingly hot and sunny weather has also been an unexpected twist for teams this weekend, as Spa is known for its predominantly cool and overcast conditions.
"It was very hard on the tyres, no-one really expected it to be that hard," agreed Verstappen of the 40C track temperatures seen so far.
"But it is the same for everyone so we have to analyse everything now and we have to see what we can do for the race."
FP2 report: Verstappen leads Ricciardo in FP2 at Spa
Romain Grosjean column: More motivated than ever
Chris Medland's 2016 Belgian Grand Prix preview
How Eric Boullier keeps McLaren on its toes
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