Fernando Alonso was confident Ferrari could continue gaining ground in the Formula One championship fight after leading the rain-soaked practice for the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday.
Alonso’s lap of one minute 49.032 seconds on a dry Spa circuit was the quickest, 11 seconds better than his leading morning time, recorded in wet conditions.
Force India driver Adrian Sutil was second with a lap of 1:49.157, while McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was third after trailing by just over two-tenths.
Ferrari has won three straight races at Spa and five of the last seven.
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F1 Standings Ahead of Belgian Grand Prix
Formula 1: Belgian Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
Formula 1: Fernando Alonso Fastest in First Practice at Spa-Francorchamps
Formula 1: Belgian Grand Prix - First Practice Results
“Let’s hope it’s our strength that the car responded well in all conditions today,” Alonso said. “You also need a little luck in these conditions as it can make it a bit of a lottery.”
With rain in Saturday’s forecast and teams limited to three sets of extreme wet tires over the weekend, Alonso said qualifying could throw up some surprises.
“With these changing conditions you need to gamble a little bit in qualifying because you can gain two or three-tenths in one lap,” the two-time champion from Spain said. “Having five drivers in the title fight in these conditions, you can quickly lose a lot of places.” The Canadian Press
Alonso’s Ferrari team-mate, Felipe Massa, completed the top five. Championship contenders Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button were next up, six and seven tenths shy of Alonso respectively, but points leader Mark Webber languished down in 18th overall, the victim of traffic on his last flying lap.
The Australian, celebrating his 34th birthday, was already a frustrated man, having complained that the session clock continued to run during a red flag interruption brought on by the suggestion that fans may have broken into a restricted area. In all, ten minutes were lost while the organisers sent out a safety car to check the situation, leaving drivers to cool their heels before a single flying lap to end the session in the best conditions of the day. Ironically, then began to rain again as the final cars returned to pit-lane.
The only driver not to participate in the last-minute shoot-out was Virgin’s Timo Glock who, having impressively headed the newcomer contingent in FP1, lost control of the rear of his VR-01 on the white line bordering the track at Liege and made hefty sideways contact with the barriers. As a result, the German was relegated to the bottom of the day’s timesheets, while Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen seized the class ‘lead’. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
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