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2011 BELGIAN GP: RESULTS FROM FRIDAY PRACTICES

FREE PRACTICE 1

Michael Schumacher with golden helmet on his 20-th anniversary

As predicted at the first free practice in Spa we had rain. First and second position for drivers of Mercedes GP, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. They set their times before it starts raining and till the end no one was able to get closer to them. There was little driving in the first session, the rain started 10 minutes into the session, then 25 minutes no one came out on the track, and then we saw cars on full wet tyres, but the conditions do not allow some serious times.

In such conditions, the two drivers ended up in tyre barriers around the track and at the same place. First Bruno Senna, and later Paul Di Resta lost their cars in turn 9 and finished the session earlier.

On the wet track Jenson Button was the fastest driver with 2:02.740, second faster than Vettel and Hamilton was third with 0.6 seconds behind German. Satisfactory performance on a wet track from Jarno Trulli in a Lotus car. The teams are hoping for a dry track for the second free practice because meteorologists predict sunny race.

Pos     Driver             Team                  Time        Gap    Laps

1. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m54.355s 13

2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m54.829s + 0.474s 15

3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2m02.740s + 8.385s 08

4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2m03.752s + 9.397s 10

5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 2m04.301s + 9.946s 07

6. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2m04.663s + 10.308s 18

7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 2m04.728s + 10.373s 10

8. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 2m05.391s + 11.036s 12

9. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2m06.583s + 12.228s 16

10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2m06.886s + 12.531s 15

11. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2m07.055s + 12.700s 12

12. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 2m07.481s + 13.126s 15

13. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 2m08.233s + 13.878s 14

14. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2m08.239s + 13.884s 14

15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 2m08.918s + 14.563s 10

16. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 2m09.792s + 15.437s 08

17. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2m12.278s + 17.923s 13

18. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 2m12.389s + 18.034s 10

19. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 2m12.772s + 18.417s 13

20. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2m13.058s + 18.703s 08

21. Karun Chandhok Lotus-Renault 2m13.090s + 18.735s 11

22. Vitaly Petrov Renault 2m13.601s + 19.246s 10

23. Bruno Senna Renault 2m14.340s + 19.985s 07

24. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 2m14.933s + 20.578s 11

FREE PRACTICE 2

Mark Webber set the fastest time in a few minutes of dry running in the second free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. After the torrential rain of the morning session, conditions improved markedly for the start of the second session and the circuit saw a flurry of activity from the outset. As the conditions and track temperature improved, so the lap times tumbled with Michael Schumacher, Button, Alonso and Webber all trading blows at the top.

Spa being Spa, however, the rain did not stay away for long and it returned with half an hour of the session remaining but not before Webber leapfrogged Alonso and Button at the top of the times. That, effectively, put an end to the day's meaningful running but teams enjoyed a long enough window of opportunity to experiment with balance and car set-up on slick, intermediate and wet tyres.

Lewis Hamilton finished the session fourth fastest ahead of Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg. Schumacher, who finished the first session on top, was 11th fastest just behind Sebastian Vettel. The top teams were closely matched, as half a second separated Webber in first from Hamilton in fourth around the 110 second lap, while Rosberg in sixth was within a second of the headline pace. The times are still not fully reliable though, as those who were last on track before the rain came enjoyed the best conditions, and not everyone got time on the soft tyre.


Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap       Laps

1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m50.321s 22

2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m50.461s + 0.140s 18

3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m50.770s + 0.449s 9

4. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m50.838s + 0.517s 9

5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m51.218s + 0.897s 14

6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m51.242s + 0.921s 22

7. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m51.655s + 1.334s 20

8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m51.725s + 1.404s 17

9. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m51.751s + 1.430s 8

10. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m51.790s + 1.469s 13

11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m51.922s + 1.601s 22

12. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m52.750s + 2.429s 20

13. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m52.780s + 2.459s 25

14. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m52.911s + 2.59 s 24

15. Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m53.009s + 2.688s 24

16. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m53.156s + 2.835s 17

17. Bruno Senna Renault 1m53.835s + 3.514s 20

18. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m55.051s + 4.730s 20

19. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m55.494s + 5.173s 22

20. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m56.202s + 5.881s 15

21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m56.816s + 6.495s 20

22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m57.450s + 7.129s 19

23. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1m57.612s + 7.291s 24

24. Vitaly Petrov Renault 2m02.234s + 11.913s 12

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