Friday analysis - soaked Spa retains its secrets 31 Aug 2012
The continuous rain ruined Friday for everyone in Belgium, with rivers all over the place and aquaplaning a nasty fact of F1 life. A supremely frustrating opening day means that they will all have to compress an awful lot of on-track work into FP3 on Saturday morning, which puts everyone on their mettle…
Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi, 2m 11.389s, P1/2m 53.232s, P7
Sergio Perez 2m 13.861s, P6/3m 12.901s, P10
Sauber’s drivers did a lot of work today, focussing generally on the usual homework. They had some adventures at Les Combes, but nothing serious.
Toro Rosso
Daniel Ricciardo, 2m 12.004s, P3/2m 49.750s, P2
Jean-Eric Vergne, 2m 12.824s, P4/2m 58.232s, P8
Like Sauber, the Toro Rosso boys were out on track more than anyone else. There wasn’t a lot of point to it, but the drivers enjoyed themselves and the sodden spectators appreciated their efforts.
Williams
Pastor Maldonado, 2m 11.941s, P2/2m 51.660s, P5
Bruno Senna (afternoon only), No time
Valtteri Bottas (morning only) 2m 14.660s, P8
All three drivers did good work, though it was of limited value given that conditions are due to be much better for the rest of the weekend.
Red Bull
Mark Webber, 2m 13.191s, P5/No time
Sebastian Vettel, 2m 14.860s, P9/No time
Again, neither driver had much to report, apart from just how awful the conditions were even on Pirelli’s full wets.
Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, 2m 14.210s, P7/No time
Michael Schumacher, 2m 15.402s, P10/No time
A soaking start to Schumacher’s 300th Grand Prix, which taught the team little of value given the more benign forecast for the rest of the weekend. Both he and Rosberg did some laps in FP1, but neither ran in FP2.
Force India
Paul di Resta, 2m 15.812s, P11/2m 51.333s, P4
Nico Hulkenberg, 2m 16.786s, P13/2m 59.125s, P9
No problems here, apart from the conditions.
Marussia
Timo Glock, 2m 16.409s, P12/2m 52.076s, P6
Charles Pic, 2m 17.519s, P17/2m 49.354s, P1
A good start to the team’s 50th Grand Prix appearance. They didn’t get to prove some new parts, but Pic was fastest in the afternoon and in general both cars ran strongly.
Caterham
Vitaly Petrov, 2m 16.788s, P14/No time
Heikki Kovalainen, 2m 18.199s, P18/No time
No problems here, but not much running, either.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 2m 16.827s, P15/No time
Jenson Button, 2m 16.861s, P16/No time
Hamilton and Button went out very late in FP1, but neither ran in FP2. Neither driver really got going, but the plan in the circumstances was to suss out how the tyres switched on in the dreadful conditions and to make an initial assessment of the effect of updates.
HRT
Pedro de la Rosa, 2m 19.546s, P19/No time
Narain Karthikeyan (afternoon only), No time
Dani Clos (morning only) 2m 19.689s, P20
No problems here bar the weather, as Clos showed up very strongly against De le Rosa as the team made the best of things in the morning before staying dry in the afternoon.
Lotus
Kimi Raikkonen, 2m 46.580s, P23/No time
Romain Grosjean, 2m 38.701s, P21/No time
Lotus did some brief lappery in the morning, but nothing conclusive, and stayed in the garage in the afternoon. Not surprisingly, no decision has been taken yet on whether to run their double DRS system, aka ‘The Device’.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 2m 40.749s, P22/2m 50.497s, P3
Felipe Massa, No time/No time
Alonso and Massa did brief out laps in the morning, and the latter’s high-mileage engine broke at the Bus Stop. Alonso was third fastest in the afternoon, when Massa didn’t record a timed lap.
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