Alonso quickest in rain at Spa

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Fernando Alonso headed the first F1 practice session at a very wet Spa-Francorchamps.

The track was already well-doused before practice even begun and further rain during the 90 minutes sent the cars back into the pits on several occasions.

The rain stopped and the sun came out before the chequered flag fell, allowing Alonso to get in a final flying lap to improve his best time by half a second to 2’00.797.

Lewis Hamilton was second fastest, almost eight tenths of a second slower than the Ferrari.

Renault ran their F-duct for the first time and Robert Kubica waited until the final minutes before putting in his quickest time, a 2’02.081 which put him third.

Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil made it five different cars in the top five, with Jenson Button sixth having done just six laps in his McLaren.

Rubens Barrichello was ninth as he began his 300th Grand Prix weekend with a special message on the airbox of his car. Michael Schumacher was tenth ahead of Felipe Massa, who nearly lost control of his car at the exit of Paul Frere curve at the end of the session.

Timo Glock was the fastest of the new teams’ drivers, just 0.017s slower than Sebastien Buemi. However the Toro Rosso driver missed much of the session with gearbox problems.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
18Fernando AlonsoFerrari2’00.79717
22Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes2’01.5670.7707
311Robert KubicaRenault2’02.0811.28414
45Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault2’02.4501.65311
514Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes2’02.6461.84914
61Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes2’02.9132.1166
76Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault2’02.9262.12911
823Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari2’03.4012.60417
99Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth2’03.4242.6277
103Michael SchumacherMercedes2’03.4892.6929
117Felipe MassaFerrari2’03.6012.80417
1210Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth2’03.6492.85217
134Nico RosbergMercedes2’03.6542.8576
1422Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari2’03.8513.05417
1515Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes2’04.1453.34812
1617Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari2’04.2503.45316
1712Vitaly PetrovRenault2’04.6903.89315
1816Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari2’05.6804.8836
1924Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth2’05.6974.90018
2025Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth2’06.6955.89814
2118Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth2’07.1896.39215
2221Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth2’07.7376.94013
2319Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth2’07.9557.15815
2420Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth2’10.5079.71018

2010 Belgian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    9 comments on “Alonso quickest in rain at Spa”

    1. Ferrari might be putting both their drivers on different configuration runs, but if they weren’t, Fernando really did demolish his teammate… and pretty much most of the field.

      1. I suppose it was just improving track conditions for Alonso and Massa losing the car at the end that make for large the difference.

        1. Massa doesn’t seem to work well in the wet, so maybe that’s a factor there…

    2. HounslowBusGarage
      27th August 2010, 12:49

      What a frustrating session for me. I couldn’t get onto the F1 Fanatic site and the BBC feed disappeared!

      1. I just watched a Polish stream, the only one i could find working (F1 Fanatic not working for me as well this morning, and the BBC unavailable from outside the UK), until my connection failed and i had to get it working again.

        But with how wet it was, there was not that much too see anyway.

      2. I know right!! I couldn’t find a live stream anywhere! Argh I am so MADD

    3. Is there any sign of wing flexing?

    4. The rain-masters to the fore

    5. If it rains on Sunday & Saturday then Ferrari are in a very strong position to do a good result this weekend.

    Comments are closed.