Little running in very wet second session

2012 Belgian Grand Prix second practice

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The first practice session was wet and saw little running – but the second was wetter and saw even less action.

Rain fell constantly from the beginning of practice and not a single driver ventured out of the pits in the first half of the 90-minute session.

Finally, with 41 minutes remaining on the clock, Nico Rosberg tentatively emerged from the pits, completing three laps in order to do practice starts.

Team mate Michael Schumacher did the same shortly afterwards. Heikki Kovalainen joined them but returned to the pits after spinning at Les Combes.

As the rain continued to fall other drivers appeared on-track briefly, including the McLaren pair and Sebastian Vettel.

A further group of drivers appeared on the track at the end of the session to do practice starts, setting the first and only times of the session.

Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 2’49.354 4
2 16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2’49.750 0.396 3
3 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2’50.497 1.143 3
4 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2’51.333 1.979 3
5 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 2’51.660 2.306 4
6 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 2’52.076 2.722 4
7 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2’53.232 3.878 4
8 17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2’58.232 8.878 3
9 12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 2’59.125 9.771 5
10 15 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 3’12.901 23.547 4
11 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 3
12 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 4
13 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1
14 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 2
15 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 3
16 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2
17 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 2
18 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 3
19 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 0
20 9 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 0
21 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 0
22 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 0
23 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 0
24 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 0

2012 Belgian Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty images

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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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49 comments on “Little running in very wet second session”

  1. I’m afraid we have seen the highlight of Charles Pic’s career…

    1. Who knows, with this achievement in his bag they might just keep him to let him show what he has got and improve on that next year. Just Picture that :-)

    2. Nick Jarvis (@)
      31st August 2012, 14:58

      you’re not a Caterham fan are you? i thought i was the only one :)

      1. There’s a few of us :)

        1. I’m a Caterham supporter :)

          1. Nick Jarvis (@)
            31st August 2012, 16:58

            yay! favourite driver? Kovalainen for me, anyone else support caterham?

          2. I also support Caterham and Kovalainen is also my favourite driver. Still waiting for their first points though. Fingers crossed it happens soon!

      2. Actually, I am a Caterham fan

    3. Sadly for him, he didnt even get a mention in the headline here.

  2. Nick Jarvis (@)
    31st August 2012, 14:50

    what’s everyone’s prediction for qualifying then? assuming it’s dry
    I’m going to say Webber, Raikkonen, Alonso, Grosjean, Hamilton, Vettel, Button.

    1. Charles Pic will pip Riciardo for pole.

      1. Nick Jarvis (@)
        31st August 2012, 14:56

        haha that’s how it looks at the moment, and i think Ricciardo will be at Red Bull in a few years, when either Vettel or Webber leave, if you watch him drive he’s actually incredible, knows how to overtake and do a blistering lap when he needs to, possible a future champion? possible i think.

      2. @david-a Is that Scientology?

    2. I think we can actually read into something today – Pic will be a contender that’s for certain.

      1. …and that Karthikeyan will always be classified last no matter what

  3. What’s the weather likely to be tomorrow?

    1. @mike

      Belgian GP > Weather

      1. Oh thanks, -.-

    2. Nick Jarvis (@)
      31st August 2012, 15:07

      dry, but cold at the moment i think, the official f1 site always has a forecast on the right hand side.

      1. they are usually wrong this past one year ever since the new vendor took over.

  4. And we have the grand total of 54 laps done in total, that’s not even a car per min for the fans seating along the track, quite a difficult day for them … Cold and wet and no much running, but should be much beter during the WE ^^

  5. Well, the much talked DDRS or “The Device” as Renault would put it, has lost it’s importance then. Paddy Lowe did not believe a single device could bring 0.5secs on any car this season. We will never find out this Weekend.

    Now, Kimi (the-car-destroyer, as I used to call him during his time at McLaren), will have some excuses for not taking pole and winning on Sunday, that is if Grosjean did not win ;)

    1. ? Will they not use it?

  6. At least it happened right after 5 weeks with no F1 at all. We can wait one more day.

  7. I have a question. All cars crossed start/finish line after session ended to start laps we see in classification. Surely there were no timed laps done, right? Just because timing registered them, it doesn’t matter they count. Am I right or wrong?

    1. *it doesn’t mean, lol

  8. I don’t think it is fair that in other qualifying sessions the fastest driver’s name is almost always displayed in the title of an article. “Kobayashi heads wet first practice session at Spa”, for example. But not this time. Although Charles Pic clearly “won” P2 due to horrible weather conditions, we still need to give Pic the equal respect.

    1. equal respect

      … is a bit difficult to argue when there are 10 drivers setting a time at all

    2. I’m sure @Keith Collantine will rectify it soon

    3. Not using Pic’s name in the headline is not a sign of disrespect. Nor is not using a driver’s name in a headline in at all out of the ordinary. I did so in FP1 in Hungary.

      It would be ridiculous to pretend that Pic’s presence at the top of the times sheets was a reflection of performance, or that he “won” a practice session, which is why I didn’t do it.

  9. Hey Keith, this’ll be one for stats and facts, but when was the last time the lowest-ranked car (Car 25 in this case) set a fastest time in any session?

    1. Barrichello in 09 and Kovalainen in 08?

      1. Rubens and Heiki? They both had arguably the fastest car which won the championship in 09 and 08 respectively?

        1. They were both car number 23 though in those seasons, which were the lowest numbers on the grid. Back when the numbering system was different, car numbers 27 and 28 used to be pretty fast, as they used to be the Ferrari cars, and in 1990, McLaren.

        2. @Icemangrins @Metalluigi and the last time a low-ranked car like set fastest time was in Belgium in 1995, Gehard Berger (Car no. 28) was on pole, ahead of Jean Alesi (Car no. 27). This was back using said old numbering system though.

    2. Back when the regulations allowed a team not classified in the T4 of the previous Championship a third car to use on Fridays, this sort of thing happened all the time because those test cars were (I think) numbered in the 30-39 range.

  10. What part of the track is the Vettel photo above? I can’t picture it from what I’ve seen on TV.

    1. It looks like the pit entry

    2. Pit entrance I think.

    3. Isn’t that the entrance road to pit lane? It’s the only point I can think of where a car would be that close to a wall with apparently nothing on the other side.

  11. What a great picture to accompany the article, love it!

  12. Clearly, someone there don’t want to see Lotus going well :)
    Anyway, DDRS is not the biggest issue Lotus should concern. It’s tyre temperature issue. This weekend is supposed to be very cool and E20 hates cool weather. We will see they adressed it or not.

  13. Pic’s seat is safe for next year then ;)

    1. Ferrari are already on it ;)

  14. So here I was, having sat through 90 minutes of literally nothing and I thought I’d be rewarded for that with the once-in-a-lifetime “Pic fastest in wet Free Pratice 2” headline – but no, only sore disappointment and a too reasonable boring header.

    Having sympathy for smaller teams sure is suffering.

    1. F1.com did put it out big header, PIC did put the fastest time in P2 and several others dare to try it.

  15. Where was that image at the top of the article taken?

    It looks like the pit entry, but I wasn’t aware there was such a sheer drop off to one side.

    1. @prisoner-monkeys It is the pit entry, you clearly have never seen the track irl before, a shame. I know it gets repeated over and over, but TV really doesn’t do it justice.

      If you look at this wonderful video, you will see that this cliff used to be right on the outside of Blanchimont and the old Clubhouse corner, without runoff, similar to what you see at Pikes Peak; makes you wonder why it wasn’t very popular among drivers :D

      1. @necrodethmortem – I have seen the circuit before. Just never from that angle.

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