F1 2009 - Belgium GP Spa Francorchamps - 1st Practice

Hamilton sets the Friday Spa pace

The sun shone down on the stunning seven kilometre Spa Francorchamps circuit this afternoon following the rain that disrupted much of the first practice session of Belgian Grand Prix weekend. Hungarian winner Lewis Hamilton set the pace in his McLaren Mercedes with a best lap of 1:47.201s, with just four-tenths of a second covering the top ten runners.

McLaren has switched back to the longer wheelbase MP4-24 this weekend but again has numerous aerodynamic updates to the car including a new diffuser. Despite a few off track excursions late in the session, Hamilton has the overnight lead, 0.016s ahead of Timo Glock in the leading Toyota.

The German-based team may not know if it has a budget to compete in next year’s championship as yet, but with Glock second fastest and team-mate Jarno Trulli seventh, the team will be much encouraged by the pace of the TF109 package following their poor showing last time out in Valencia.

Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest and like most of the top ten runners, the Ferrari star ran the harder prime tyre early in the session before moving to the softer option rubber. Raikkonen was just 0.084s off the pace of Hamilton and was forced to park the F60 right at the end of the session with a mechanical failure.

Red Bull Renault are expected to be very strong at this circuit as the fast sweeping Spa turns should - in theory - be ideally suited to the characteristics of the RB5 package. Mark Webber, third in the championship behind Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, recorded the fourth fastest time and unlike many others, the Australian’s best times came on the harder prime tyre which bodes well for race day.


Romain Grosjean was an encouraging fifth fastest in what is his second Grand Prix weekend as a Renault F1 driver ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella who found time late in the session in his Force India to vault up the order.

With Trulli seventh, Robert Kubica led the BMW Sauber challenge with the eighth fastest time ahead of rookie Jaime Alguersuari who had a very strong day in his Toro Rosso Ferrari, despite a mechanical issue that left him stranded at Fagnes as the chequered flag flew.

Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top ten in the second Red Bull, undoubtedly conserving his dwindling supply of Renault V8 engines by running lower revs than his rivals in practice. Sebastien Buemi was 12th best in the second Toro Rosso ahead of Adrian Sutil in the second Force India Mercedes.

Fernando Alonso set the pace early on in the session in his Renault, but dropped down to finish 14th ahead of Kazuki Nakajima and Nick Heidfeld.

Over at Brawn Mercedes, the session was not a good one for Button and Barrichello as both struggled for grip on the way to the 17th and 18th fastest times respectively. While the BGP 001 looked off the pace today however, it is worth noting that despite their lowly positions, the duo are still less than a second off the ultimate pace.

At the back of the field, Nico Rosberg has yet to show much pace in the dry conditions in his Williams Toyota while it was of no surprise to see Luca Badoer slowest of all, eight-tenths of a second behind Rosberg.

The session was briefly halted after five minutes after Badoer’s front left wheel insert flew off his F60 at the fast Blanchimont sweeping left hander, narrowly missing a Toyota following close behind. With debris very much in the minds of the stewards following Felipe Massa’s Hungarian Grand Prix accident, the red flags were immediately deployed while the rogue wheel insert was retrieved from the circuit.

F1 : Hamilton sets the Friday Spa pace - Spa - F1-Live.com

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