Alonso leads at Belgian GP’s first practice
The day went wet and tough as already expected. Heavy rain showers poured right from the start of the day as the drivers and the car waited to come out for the practice session of the thirteenth race of the season scheduled to be held at Spa, Belgium.
The track that had always been cruel and savage, claiming lives of several drivers, allowed the racers to come out later than planned using their extreme wet Bridgestones as the order of the day.
The Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso was able to mark the day setting the fastest lap while Lewis Hamilton kept working hard to chase him.
When the heavy rain allowed the twenty four cars on the track, Alonso got momentum to reduce his time fleeing his Ferrari round with 2m 00.797s while McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton stood close in with 2m 01.567s, 0.770s.
The Red bull driver, Sebastian Vettel occupied third place until the last stages when Robert Kubica moved his Renault ahead making 1m 02.081s his fastest, leaving Vettel to follow him at fourth place with 2m 02.450s.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil ended right behind the Red Bull driver with 2m 02.646s, followed by Jenson Button driving the second McLaren, finishing his best in 2m 02.913s.
Mark Webber, the birthday boy, was able to end at seventh place on 2m 02.926s in the second RB6.
The eighth place of the day was taken by Kamui Kobayashi in his BMW Sauber in 2m 03.401s while Rubens Barrichello followed him in his Williams with 2m 03.424s for ninth place of the day.
Michael Schumacher who had won six races at Spa ended at tenth in 2m 03.489s for his Mercedes and was chased by the Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa on 2m 03.601s
The twelfth place was claimed by Nico Hulkenberg on 2m 03.649s in the Williams’ car. Catching his tail stood Nico Rosberg on 2m 03.654s driving the second Mercedes, while Pedro de la Rosa of BMW Sauber struggled hard to end on 2m 03.851s for the fourteenth place.
Vitantonio Liuzzi was hardly able to make in 2m 04.145s in his Force India to catch fifteenth place, one place ahead of Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso who made his fastest in 2m 04.250s.
Vitaly Petrov drove his Renault on 2m 04.690s and ended at seventeenth place while eighteenth and nineteenth places of the day came to Sebastien Buemi and Timo Glock in 2m 05.680s in Toro Rosso and 2:05.697s in Virgin respectively. His teammate Lucas di Grassi followed him for twentieth position on 2m 05.697s chased by the Lotus driver Jarno Trulli in 2:07.189 .
Heikki Kovalainen was sandwiched between the two HRT drivers, Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto ending with 2:07.737 and 2m 10.507s.
Well, not much could be predicted from this session as yet more practices and qualifiers are yet to go before the final race day.
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