Kamui Kobayashi was the quickest driver in a very wet first practice session at Spa-Francorchamps.
After a five-week break the weather ensured the fans at Spa had to wait a little longer to see much F1 action. Rain fell steadily at the beginning of the session, discouraging most drivers from doing anything more than installation laps.
The one exception was Kamui Kobayashi, the only driver to set a time in the first half of the session, setting a best time of 2’17.705.
It wasn’t until the second half of the session that the rain eased and drivers began taking to the circuit. The Toro Rosso pair came out first and were joined by Kobayashi.
Daniel Ricciardo and Pastor Maldonado improved on Kobayashi’s best time, but the Sauber driver took the top spot back with a best time of 2’11.389.
Towards the end of the session the rain returned before several drivers had gone out in the best of the conditions. But all the drivers were on-track for the final moments in order to do practice starts.
Michael Schumacher, Paul di Resta and Pastor Maldonado all had brushes with disaster at Eau Rouge as the track conditions deteriorated – Schumacher in particular having a sudden twitch as he touched the kerb on the way into the corner.
In the final moments of the session Felipe Massa pulled over at the Bus Stop chicane with more than just water spray coming from the back of his Ferrari. “I’ve lost my engine – the engine is broken,” he told his team.
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Image © Sauber F1 Team
Nirupam (@nirupam)
31st August 2012, 10:45
Somehow I am starting to hate these wet sessions, be it practice, quali or race :(
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
31st August 2012, 10:59
After 5 weeks waiting, I was surprised to see myself looking around and not giving any attention to F1 between 20′ and 45′ Hopefully a bit of action at the end to make it for the session but yet, that’s not the real F1 yet …
Let’s hope it will stop raining for this afternoon but that’s not sure yet, and that’s Belgium
Stjuuv (@stjuuv)
31st August 2012, 11:02
With a predictable championship (as we had not so far in the past) the rain will add excitement with unpredictability and a chance of a surprise result, but in the case of an already unpredictable championship and changing relative performances of all teams at all races, the rain will only add a second layer on top of that, making it frustrating to try and get a clear picture of who’s better, who’s worse. I think that halfway through the season, a lot of people would like to get an idea of how things might turn out by the end of the season, but with a wet session after a summer break, you can’t get any meaningful information in that regard.
Nirupam (@nirupam)
31st August 2012, 11:07
Exactly what I meant..so dear Rain GOD, no more here please, both the championships already pretty much unpredictable, now please give us a chance to get some idea about the performance advantage/disadvantages of the teams.
Eggry (@eggry)
31st August 2012, 10:58
No more rain spoiled practices!! It’s interesting to hear that Marussia also bring Double DRS update. It is said that if there’s dry practice, they will test it.
James (@jamesf1)
31st August 2012, 11:46
They need to sort the aero out on the rest of their car before flapping around with double DRS
Nirupam (@nirupam)
31st August 2012, 11:09
Don’t know how much the weather is going to change in next 2/3 hours, but can we expect a dry session in FP2?
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
31st August 2012, 11:34
I’m 40 km away from Spa and it has been dry for 1h30 but that doesn’t mean much as rain can be very local here in Belgium and very difficult to predict, so I’m not sure anyone really knows how will be FP2 until few minutes before FP2 … Have to wait and see, again
KaIIe (@kaiie)
31st August 2012, 12:38
Commentators on MTV3 said that rain is expected to fall for the rest of the day, and should be even heavier than in FP1.
snowman.john (@snowman-john)
31st August 2012, 12:26
Its odd that Mclaren, who have admitted themselves that they are struggling in the wet this year, did so few laps in practice. Surely that’s what practice is for?
verstappen (@verstappen)
31st August 2012, 13:31
I would think so, but maybe they rely on the forecast which says dry Qualy and Race.
Still, with testing ban, I think the Laps in wet could help later in the year?
GeorgeTuk (@georgetuk)
31st August 2012, 13:33
Think its too much rain, they would not race in these conditions so no need to gather data.
LJ
31st August 2012, 17:33
Hmmm, wasn’t too much rain for all the other drivers. Kobayashi put in 20 laps in the morning, no problem. It was only at the end of the session where it started getting a bit iffy. I’ve noticed the “top” teams don’t like to do much running at all in wet practice sessions though. Notice Alonso prefers to sit in his leather throne than go out and it doesn’t appear to effect his performance.
Kodongo (@kodongo)
31st August 2012, 13:37
Saving tyres > everything else
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
31st August 2012, 14:02
@kodongo There is no more rain expected this weekend so this is nothing to do with saving tyres. This is purely a case of them having too little useful information to gain and too much to lose if they have a crash.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
31st August 2012, 13:42
Does this mean that Massa will have to use 3 engines in total this weekend? I know you’re not allowed to use the same engine from FP for quali and the race and obviously they will have to replace the one that’s just blown.