Second session of Free Practice at Spa Francorchamps
After dominating the first session of Free Practice, Fernando Alonso maintained his performance on a dry Spa Francorchamps circuit after setting the fastest time in the session. Fernando clocked in at 1:49.032 ahead of Adrian Sutil and Lewis Hamilton in his very last lap.
The conditions were significantly better than the first session as there was just a mist-like shower of rain in the beginning allowing some of the teams including Ferrari, to run on intermediate tyres.
Alonso had his tyres at the best possible temperature and topped his own time from the first session. He became the first driver to clock in bellow the two-minute marker. Lewis Hamilton, shortly after went the quickest at 1:59.397, following Alonso’s lead. Timo Glock and Tonio Liuzzi were the first ones to slide off the track proving that the conditions were still unpredictable.
The lap times kept tumbling as the track was drying rapidly in the bright sunshine. Robert Kubica was able to make the most of his Renault’s new F-duct and timed in better than Felipe Massa, Mark Webber, and Michael Schumacher after almost half an hour in the session.
James Alguersuari was the first driver to experiment with the dry slicks and topped the timesheets with a 1:55.329 proving he made the right choice. The rest of the drivers followed Alguesuari’s lead, as there was a threat of rain later on in the session. Jenson Button beat his time by lapping at a 1:49.755 after bolting on the softer option tyre.
However, Button was not able to stay on top as the shower forecast failed to occur. The session was red flagged because the spectators reckoned to be in an unsafe area, as children climbed the fences. A ten-minute interruption forced race control to conduct a lap of the track.
With only four minutes remaining, the session restarted, giving the drivers just one lap to make any further adjustments. A large number of cars flooded into the pit lane making it difficult for the cars to space out on the track.
Alonso nailed the best lap time in his final effort and finished at the top of the list in the timesheet right before the rain started to pour again. Webber struggled to find his way out of the pit before the session and ended in a disappointing 18th place at the end of the session. Red Bull seemed to struggle in these conditions as Vettel spent most of the time in the garage as mechanics and engineers were inspecting the right-rear corner of his car.
Webber seemed to be in a lot of trouble as he slowed radically with a suspected engine problem. However, he resumed his speed and continued the session after a brief conversation with his team.
Fernando stayed on top until the end of the session ahead of Adrian Sutil with an impressive performance in the Force India, as he hopes to replicate last year’s performance here. Robert Kubica ended up in 4th place behind Lewis Hamilton and ahead of Felipe Massa, followed by Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button in 6th and 7th places respectively. Rubens Barrichello timed ahead of Kamui Kobayashi in 10th place. Michael Schumacher seemed to struggle again as he timed in at 12th place ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg. Tonio Liuzzi finished in 16th place while Mark Webber finished in 18th place.
McLaren and Ferrari seem to be the strongest teams up until now as both of the teams had both of their drivers under the 10th place marker. The teams were constantly challenging each other with their times however, the Red Bull did not look as strong as these two.
The teams will have a lot of work to do regarding their setup in the final practice before qualifying, as they were not able to solve all their problems due to the uncertain conditions in the Friday practice sessions.
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