Williams, which admitted it "wasn't the best Friday of the year", took another hit when the Grove outfit was fined 10,000 Euros following an error with Lance Stroll's tyres.

Down to one driver after Felipe Massa crashed early in FP1, and the rules preventing the Brazilian from contesting FP2 as his 'new' car had to be scrutineered - which couldn't happen until Saturday morning - the team, which was in the nether regions of the timesheets in both session, was subsequently called before the stewards.

The rules are that 40 minutes into FP1, each driver has to hand back a set of tyres from their allocation. This process was delayed (by 9 minutes) however, due to the red flag that followed Massa's crash.

However, Williams was called before the stewards because Stroll used the set of tyres which the team had nominated prior to the start of FP1 for 6 laps at 11:09 and then again at 11:21 for another 4 laps, a move not in compliance with Article 24.4 g i) (3rd paragraph) of the Sporting Regulations.

The Stewards heard from a Williams representative who admitted the infringement, and having considered the facts accepted that the infringement was inadvertent.

However, the stewards had noted repeated offences concerning tyres by the team and a similar infringement for which a suspended fine was imposed. As a result the Grove outfit was fined 10,000 Euros.

Check out our Friday gallery from Spa, here.