Belgium 2008: Friday Afternoon Practice

With the second 90 minute practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix came the rain, washing the track and making the drivers shy about setting lap times. Although the session wasn’t a complete wash-out, the times set are noticeably slower than in the morning, and a lot of drivers complained about lack of running. One driver who wasn’t complaining though was Fernando Alonso, who finished his Friday duties on top of the timing sheet.

The downpour lasted for about 35 minutes, the main victim being Mark Webber who didn’t make it back to the pits – his Red Bull ended up in the tyre barrier. Once the rain had ceased though, the drivers poured out on to the track to get some running in, but the surface was still very slippery. It wasn’t long before the red flag was waved though as Kimi Raikkonen caught a white line and spun around, nudging the tyre barrier with his rear wing. A slow traipse back the pitlane for repairs essentially ruined the Finn’s afternoon. To add to the calamity, Raikkonen’s incident allowed water from the tyre wall to leak out down the corner, and combined with some lost fluid from the Ferrari, meant that Turn 9 suddenly became very treacherous.

Giancarlo Fisichella discovered this added danger the hard way as spun around several times, clouting the armco as he went. Nelson Piquet Jr too had a similar off, almost repeating Kimi’s efforts identically. However, after a further wait and in the dying moments, Nico Rosberg ventured out and the times started to tumble. On hard dry tyres though, Alonso took control and popped in a surprise quick lap that would remain until the chequered flag. Felipe Massa couldn’t match Alonso and by the time the Ferrari had conceded defeat, the drizzle started to fall again.

Notable lap times came from the Scuderia Toro Rossos again, emphasising good pace from the Ferrari-powered car. Sebastian Vettel readdressed the morning order by going seventh, ahead of team mate Sebastien Bourdais who settled for thirteenth. Adrian Sutil manage to get up to eighth, giving Force India a consolation prize as they started to mend Fisichella’s battered car.

Belgium 2008: Friday Free Practice Two