Webber, Hamilton and Vettel Top the Spa Final Practice
Surprisingly, Mark Webber was able to top the timesheets in the final practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps. Webber scored a time of 1:46.106 that seemed to be enough for the rest of the pack. The top three Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were separated by just 0.3 seconds until the end of the session.
The current championship leader was like a dark horse in the Friday Practice sessions and proved capabilities on a dry track today with a series of fast laps on soft tires before the rain showered on the track once more with just 15 minutes remaining in the session. Hamilton and Webber scored a couple of fast laps for sometime but couldn’t continue as all the drivers had to come in for the safety of the pits.
Jenson Button in his McLaren was marginally ahead of Robert Kubica at fourth place. However, the fastest driver, Fernando Alonso wasn’t able to make an impression as he timed in at 6th place ahead of his teammate Felipe Massa. Adrian Sutil scored an impressive performance again as he timed in ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in 8th place.
The Red Bulls were the fastest during this session and had an advantage in the down force-dependant middle sector of the lap. McLaren dominated the long straights of the first and second sector and set the highest speeds according to the speed traps. The whole situation can change however, if it rains in the qualifying and race as all the drivers will fight for grip around the illustrious track.
Vettel’s car stuck in gear at the pit lane entrance and required the marshals’ push to get moving with just 20 minutes remaining in the session. This seemed to be a greater problem than the rain for the German driver. The car was pushed into garage where the team had to remove the engine cover before Renault V8 engine was restarted. Vettel drove for a couple of laps in the wet conditions just to make sure that the repair was successful and returned to the pit garage satisfied.
Button joined Vettel on the track in wet conditions and set a couple of decent lap times before the most valuable news about the final 15 minutes broke out that the practice will start on the damp pit straight.
Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher beat his teammate’s time again but was not able to score some decent laps as he finished in 14th place. Rubens Barrichello lapped in at a 1'47.512 and landed in 13th place right behind Kobayashai, De La Rosa and Petrov in 10th, 11th and 12th places respectively. Buemi and Alguesuari ended behind the Mercedes in 16th and 17th places. Tonio Liuzzi wasn’t able to perform as good as his teammate Adrian Sutil and he timed at 18th place ahead of Jarno Trulli and Bruno Senna in 19th and 20th places respectively.
Kovalainen, Di Grassi and Glock timed at 21st, 22nd and 23rd places while Yamamoto ended up in the back of the field. After mixed results in all the practice sessions, it becomes very difficult to predict what will happen in the qualifying session or the race. Ferrari seems to be quick in wet conditions while the Red Bulls are quicker in dry ones. On the other hand, McLarens have been decent in both of the conditions and have been very impressive in the long straights thanks to their F-duct technology.
However, the changing weather conditions at Spa will have their own affects later on in the weekend that will also drastically affect the drivers. This was expected to happen and the teams will have a tough time deciding their strategies for the grand prix.
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