First session of Free Practice at Spa-Francorchamps
After an eventful first session of free practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso set the fastest time for Ferrari as the predicted rain hit the track. Alonso’s best lap time was recorded at 2:00.797 seconds and finished the opening session ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel.
The top runners came out earlier on the track with their full wet weather tyres in order to get used to the wet track. It was done in a bid to find out the areas where water was stagnant as rain is expected to play a huge part this weekend.
Adrian Sutil set a time of 2:03.331 seconds that was the first competitive time on the wet track. It set the standard for the rest of the drivers. No one was able to beat Sutil’s time until just after the hour mark. Alonso was the first one to break Sutil’s time before Vettel went even faster, keeping in mind that rain continued throughout the session. Fernando scored an even quicker time at 2:01.223 seconds before the intensity of the rain increased, forcing all drivers to go back to the pits for safety.
The cars took to the circuit once more for the final 20 minutes after the weather stabilized. The sunshine came to sight as the skies cleared for the first time during the session and caused the lap times to drop accordingly with Alonso bettering his time once again. Hamilton decided to stay in the pits when the conditions were at their best and Mercedes decided to head to the briefing room after packing up with just ten minutes remaining. As a result, it is not possible to predict what the team will decide for this weekend.
Keeping that in mind, the first practice did not give a clear view of what is to come on this weekend. One of the highlights of this race however, is going to be the beginning of the Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello’s 300th grand prix. Barrichello will be the first driver to race in 300 grand prix after this race and said that he is nowhere near retiring. Rubens was the ninth fastest ahead of Michael Schumacher at the end of this session. Michael was able to time in better than his teammate which is a good sign for the German as he has been struggling against his teammate. This is because he had a lot of work done on his Ferrari. Jenson Button set the sixth fastest time behind Sutil but was ahead of the championship leader Mark Webber at seventh place. Kamui Kobayashi was the 8th fastest.
Reports suggested that Ferrari had an updated blown floor, Renault had a fully working F-duct for the first time this season and Force India were testing their blown diffuser on Tonio Liuzzi’s car. However, the Red Bull appeared to have some minor changes to its front end and the team was experimenting with its aerodynamic flow paint earlier in the session.
Alonso stayed on the top till the end of the session after driving for 16 laps ahead of Lewis Hamilton who was seven tenths of a second behind, followed by Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel. Force India was looking good as Adrian Sutil was the 5th fastest ahead of Jenson Button and Mark Webber who were 6th and 7th fastest respectively. Rubens timed as the 9th fastest behind Kamui Kobayashi and ahead of Michael Schumacher.
Felipe Massa was not able to get the best of his car as he ended up behind Michael but ahead of Nico Rosberg who timed in as the 13th fastest in his Mercedes. Tonio Liuzzi was the 15th fastest ahead of Vitaly Petrov in 17th spot with his Renault. Jaime Alguersuari was in the 16th place ahead of the Toro Rosso, Virgin and HRT F1 drivers led the end of the pack. None of the teams were able to dominate completely which would make it very difficult to predict this weekend’s results.
More running and better conditions are expected in this afternoon’s session as the skies cleared after the chequered flag was waved to end the first session.
Tags: