Grand Prix of Belgium, Practise Sessions 1, 2 & 3

BMW’s Nick Heidfeld emerged fastest as the field scrambled to get
some dry running at the end of a rain-affected final practice session
at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

McLaren duo Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton ended up second and
fourth, split by Fernando Alonso (Renault), while the Ferraris only
managed fifth (Felipe Massa) and seventh (Kimi Raikkonen).

Morning rain meant the track was damp in places when the session
began, and with steadily increasing drizzle greeting the drivers as
they set out for their installation laps and heavier showers soon
following, most preferred to get straight back to the pits.

However, with rain likely to be a factor later in the weekend, all
bar the McLarens, Ferraris and BMW’s Robert Kubica eventually chose to
come out for some wet running when the circuit was at its most damp
towards the middle of the session…(read full practise report here)

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:47.876           19
 2.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:48.165 + 0.289   10
 3.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:48.307 + 0.431   19
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:48.356 + 0.480   10
 5.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:48.692 + 0.816    6
 6.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:48.768 + 0.892   16
 7.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:48.815 + 0.939   10
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:48.836 + 0.960   13
 9.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:48.946 + 1.070   17
10.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:49.054 + 1.178   14
11.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:49.057 + 1.181   16
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:49.125 + 1.249   11
13.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:49.250 + 1.374   12
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:49.256 + 1.380   19
15.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:49.535 + 1.659   18
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:49.830 + 1.954   12
17.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:49.949 + 2.073   16
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:50.034 + 2.158   16
19.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:50.061 + 2.185   17
20.  Button        Honda               (B)  No time

Well Kimi was hoping for dry weather today but it seems it’ll remain wet. However, he did look competitive in the damp conditions yesterday so nothing’s lost yet. We’ll find out soon enough how Kimi’s car is after the little accident yesterday, as the floor was damaged, and whether it’s cost him vital set-up comfort. Let’s see how our Iceman does in qualifying and let’s stand behind him no matter what.

| Free Practise 2 – Alonso Fastest in Red-Flagged Session, Kimi in Minor Barrier Contact

Fernando Alonso grabbed the top spot at the end of a rain and red flag-nterrupted Friday afternoon practice session at Spa.

Morning pace-setter Felipe Massa (Ferrari) had to settle for second behind the Renault, ahead of McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton emerged fastest from the early scramble, lapping in 1:48.805 to beat Massa by 0.033 seconds. Drizzle was beginning by the time these laps were completed and the rain soon worsened, causing the field to shelter in the pits for the next 35 minutes.

Mark Webber didn’t make it back to the garage, though, sliding off the road at Rivage and burying his Red Bull’s left-front corner in the tyre barrier.

Although the rain soon passed, conditions remained treacherous when the drivers returned to the track in earnest with just over half an hour remaining.

Raikkonen was first to get caught out – losing control on the approach to the unnamed Turn 9 and spinning his Ferrari backwards into the barriers. The impact not only removed the car’s rear wing, but it dislodged a large amount of water from the tyres, which was spread onto the edge of the circuit – possibly along with fluids from the damaged Ferrari – as Raikkonen dragged his car back to the pits.

Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella then hit this surprise slippery patch on the exit kerbs and snapped into a spin, bouncing down the armco on the opposite side of the road, prompting a red flag while his battered car was retrieved and the Turn 9 wet patch attended to.

With Alonso also paying a visit to the gravel at Stavelot just before the stoppage, it was clear that the circuit wasn’t ready for fast times on dry tyres yet, and his teammate Nelson Piquet proved that the circuit remained tricky even when the session resumed – replicating Raikkonen’s Turn 9 crash after lightly brushing the kerb on the approach to the corner, leaving his Renault’s rear wing dangling as well…(read full practise report here)

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:48.454            21
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:48.504  + 0.050   15
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:48.740  + 0.286   19
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:48.805  + 0.351   17
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:49.328  + 0.874   10
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:49.405  + 0.951   17
 7.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:49.427  + 0.973   28
 8.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:49.585  + 1.131   22
 9.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:49.715  + 1.261   22
10.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:49.725  + 1.271   21
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:49.875  + 1.421   22
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:49.922  + 1.468   20
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:49.948  + 1.494   20
14.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:50.281  + 1.827   23
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:50.364  + 1.910   20
16.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:50.740  + 2.286   11
17.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:50.925  + 2.471   18
18.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:51.238  + 2.784   22
19.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:51.334  + 2.880   18
20.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:51.640  + 3.186    7

I said take each day as it comes and the wet track caused a bit of drama in this second session! Few drivers had run wide and spun in various places in the first session, but Kimi’s spin seemed to be caused by a rear wheel lock on a spot of extra-damp track but we’ll have to wait and see what he says. After nudging the barrier and once his rear wing fell off, he sat in the garage for the remaining minutes while the track marshalls tried to disperse the river of water that Kimi disturbed from the tyre barriers. Later, Fisichella and Piquet both spun in the same corner as Kimi, due to the wet surface. Look at this picture sequence of what happened. As you can see, Kimi is on the white line and perhaps that’s why the rear spun out. Anyway, Kimi looked quite comfortable today for a change and was in P3 before the session continued. It’s not a crisis but like I said yesterday – take things as they come guys and save the criticism for after the race. Meanwhile, enjoy the videos and pictures that are brought to you as soon as possible, as always.

| Friday Team Quotes, Kimi hoping for dry Saturday

Kimi Raikkonen – 5th: "When I went off the track at
Turn 9, I clipped the kerb and the surface was a bit slippery there
because of the rain. I ended up spinning and then hitting the barrier.
Unfortunately, not only did the rear wing break, but the floor was also
damaged and it could not be repaired in time. A shame as already
earlier, when I had gone onto new tyres, it had begun raining and I
lost a bit of time. Let’s hope tomorrow morning there’s no rain so that
I can run more consistently in the dry. In the morning, apart from a
few little electrical problems, the car wasn’t bad. Tomorrow we will
see what we can do and obviously the weather will be a key factor."

Ferrari – "Kimi as motivated as ever"

"I think Kimi’s motivation is very high, he is the one who does not like this moment," said Domenicali. "In terms of motivation I am pretty sure he has a lot inside, and what we are doing as a team is supporting him, work very hard with him, and I a looking forward to seeing what you are all expecting."

Domenicali reiterated Ferrari’s intention to ask one driver to play a supporting role to the other in the championship in order to secure the title.

The team boss rejected suggestions, however, that Raikkonen and Massa have been taking points off each other..

"No, of course not, because I think it is better to have two strong cars than only one, for sure we will have, maybe, to take a decision as we did last year at a certain moment of the season to be able to ensure what you said doesn’t happen.

"If you look at all the races we have done there was not a situation where a driver took points from the other."

Domenicali also said he was confident the engine problems that cost them dearly in the last two races have been solved for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

"It was the same problem, the same conrod because it was the same batch sequence, and hopefully we have isolated this problem," he added.

"For sure this has cost a lot of points on our side, apart from that the problem shows how it is important the quality control process, not just in company but also with supplier. This is a key area that we cannot underestimate the importance of."

| Videos, FP2 – Kimi Spins & Hit Barriers, Fisichella & Piquet Hit Barriers

     http://www.viddler.com/simple/b9f9bead/      http://www.viddler.com/simple/b71c592b/

| Free Practise 1 – Massa Leads Ferrari 1-2

Felipe Massa maintained his recent strong form by dominating Friday morning practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian’s Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen took second, with Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen third and fourth for McLaren.

Massa was fastest for the majority of the morning at an overcast but dry Spa-Francorchamps, setting the first flying lap of the weekend and then repeatedly improving his time as his first run progressed.

Raikkonen had a more leisurely start to his Spa weekend and then spoiled his first effort with a mistake at La Source, but he eventually got down to a 1:48.075 to usurp Massa at the top of the times as the session approached its halfway point.

But Raikkonen’s period in front was brief, as Massa lapped in 1:47.813 six minutes later to reclaim first position, where he would stay despite improvements by both his teammate and Hamilton – the latter beating the Ferraris’ times in the middle sector when on soft tyres but losing out in the other two-thirds of the lap.

Massa also switch to soft tyres for his final run and found even more time, improving to first a 1:47.369 then 1:47.284 to cement his position as the opening practice pace-setter.

Raikkonen ended up 0.339 seconds adrift after his own last outing, with Hamilton having to settle for third after an error at La Source. The Briton had earlier taken a trip through the gravel at Les Combes.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso was the nearest challenger to the title contenders throughout the session and ended up fifth behind Kovalainen.

Mark Webber leapt from the midfield to sixth for Red Bull with his last lap of the session, pushing the Toro Rossos down the order.

The junior Red Bull squad again showed promising speed, with Sebastien Bourdais taking sixth and Sebastian Vettel seventh – the latter escaping some wild sideways slides and a few trips over the run-off areas.

Bourdais’ morning then came to a strange end when his car ground to a halt on the exit of La Source as he tried to return to the pits after the post-session practice starts.

Toyota’s Timo Glock and Renault’s Nelson Piquet completed the top ten, as BMW had a disappointing morning. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld only managed 11th and 12th, with Kubica complaining bitterly about his car’s performance over the radio. Others in trouble included Jarno Trulli, whose Toyota was kept in the pits by an electrical problem for much of the session, and Honda – as Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ended the session slowest of all.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:47.284            26
 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:47.623  + 0.339   26
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:47.878  + 0.594   27
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:47.932  + 0.648   24
 5.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:48.104  + 0.820   26
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:48.428  + 1.144   29
 7.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:48.557  + 1.273   31
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:48.958  + 1.674   24
 9.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:48.997  + 1.713   26
10.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:49.068  + 1.784   25
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:49.139  + 1.855   25
12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:49.185  + 1.901   26
13.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:49.611  + 2.327   30
14.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:49.625  + 2.341   14
15.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:49.849  + 2.565   18
16.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:49.986  + 2.702   27
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:50.117  + 2.833   19
18.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:50.125  + 2.841   30
19.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:50.464  + 3.180   25
20.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:50.905  + 3.621   25

Not a bad start but seeing as Kimi had a little rough first practise there’s a long way to go yet and he will close that gap to Massa. Apparently Kimi had some electronical problems, according to MTV3, which cost him some track time.

| FP1 Videos – Short Onboard Kimi, Vettel Slides (Long Onboard Kimi, Session Highlights – coming soon)

           http://www.viddler.com/simple/c71979c5/             http://www.viddler.com/simple/84d8e25/

          http://www.viddler.com/simple/1930a8ff/            http://www.viddler.com/simple/7e11ebb7/