Belgian GP Friday and Saturday Practice Sessions Thread

[vcs316]

40 min: Vettel is now setting a quick pace and indeed the Red Bull driver goes to the front of the field with 2m02.450s as the pace gradually quickens in the tricky conditions.

39 min: Sutil reports at the end of his first run that the gear ratios are very long, so he hasn't yet used seventh. The German also confirms that the F-duct is functioning normally.

[vcs316]

Massa improves to seventh quickest with a 2m03.601s lap.

[Ste]

Alonso just went P1, 1.2s quicker than Vettel in P2.

Nice

[Sempre_Ferrari]

track must be drying...Nando P1...by 1 sec

[bkircher]

Massa and Alonso both look to be running the older front wing. Nice time from Alonso too.

[vcs316]

Alonso puts his Ferrari back on top of the order, improving the benchmark to a 2m01.223s.

[Ste]

Alonso Team Radio:

"It's raining quite heavy now"

Then I literally didn't understand the rest.

[Hermann]

So far for 'the track must be drying' for Fernando to be the fastest atm. No its not drying at all its just that he is one of the best rain drivers...

Did he just make a start test?

[vcs316]

Alonso pops through the pits in his Ferrari to give the team a measure of the time spent trundling past the garage.

[vcs316]

Schumacher completes a lap in 2m03.489s to move up to eighth place as the rain on the south side of the circuit becomes much heavier again.

[vcs316]

Heavy rain now falling as lightning flashes around Spa. We have 10 hardy souls on the circuit doing their best currently.

[vcs316]

1 Fernando Alonso in pits
2 Lewis Hamilton in pits
3 Sebastian Vettel in pits
4 Adrian Sutil in pits
5 Jenson Button in pits
6 Mark Webber in pits
7 Kamui Kobayashi in pits
8 Michael Schumacher in pits
9 Felipe Massa in pits
10 Nico Hülkenberg in pits
11 Nico Rosberg in pits

[vcs316]

Michael Schumacher proves he still has the bravery and heads out in his Mercedes powerboat.

[m schumy]

Michael Schumacher proves he still has the bravery and heads out in his Mercedes powerboat.

[Ste]

I'm waiting for someone to aquaplane over one of the lakes of water on track.

[voiko]

Massa and Alonso both look to be running the older front wing. Nice time from Alonso too.

anyone confirm this?

[m schumy]

0959: Red Bull boss Christian Horner was speaking to Lord Ted of Kravitz earlier on the controversy over whether there is bodywork on their cars that is flexing illegally. Here's what he had to say: "Plenty has been said about our car but the FIA are the regulators and all the cars have to comply with same rules. Our car has complied with the rules at every race so far and will comply here. We take all the talk about our car as a compliment, it shows the others don't know what we're up to. So far this year they've talked about our ride height, suspension, active ride height - this week it's the front wing, what next? It can only be the drivers after that. The next two races are very important to us. I think McLaren and Ferrari have won the last 11 races here, that's quite a lockout. They will be quick in the first and third sectors so we've got to do our damage in the middle sector and we're confident we can give them a run for their money this weekend. [Red Bull technical director] Adrian Newey seems pretty relaxed about it [the new load tests for Spa and Monza]. It will only affect us as much as any of the other teams."

[vcs316]

Schumacher quickly decides that conditions are a touch too wet for meaningful running and he pits.

[vcs316]

I'm waiting for someone to aquaplane over one of the lakes of water on track.

Alguersuari reports a lot of water on the track - as if we didn't know - and that he's experiencing aquaplaning. He crosses the line in 2m05.731s - 1.5s shy of his previous best and begins another tour.

[vcs316]

Massa heads out to sample the conditions for Ferrari.

[vcs316]

Massa's car is tailed by a huge plume of spray as he comes around to begin a lap against the clock.

[Ste]

Alonso going quicker. PB in S1, Purple in S2. Currently 0.35 up.

Another PB in S3. Goes quickest, 2.00.797.

0.770 quicker than Hamilton in P2.

[itsme_marky]

any pics of the new diffuser & revised back of the car?

[vcs316]

Alonso clocks a 2m00.797s to go significantly quicker at the top of the times.

[RockyRaccoon]

Alonso doing a very nice job in these conditions, consistently up there. Still I'm hoping for a dry race/quali, rain is too unpredictable!

[vcs316]

Fernando Alonso is the fastest driver at the end of a wet first practice session at Spa, with a time of 2m00.797s, with Hamilton second.

[m schumy]

BBC pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz: "This is developing into a fascinating contest between Red Bull and Ferrari - that's maybe what we're going to see here this weekend. Ferrari now have approaching Red Bulls level of down-force."

[m schumy]

Free Practice 1

[Stormsearcher]

@rocky- why change what is working for us.
i dont care if it rains or snows or is dry.. as long as we win. i hope this positive FP carries into the race as well.
Go Ferrari!!!!!!!!!

[Stormsearcher]

I can already see PF1s writers struggling to find words that say alonso was P1 in FP1... wondering how they can make hamiltons P2 look like a P1. lol..