Belgium – Free Practice 1: Alonso in the Gloom
In rainy weather conditions, it was Fernando Alonso who was the fastest this morning at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The Ferrari driver is ahead of the two Force India cars of di Resta and Sutil.
The sky is gray and a few drops fall on the Spa-Francorchamps track at the start of the first free practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix, the 11th round of the Formula 1 World Championship.
Heikki Kovalainen, who is replacing Charles Pic for this session, will start with wet track tires. At Force India, they opt for intermediates. Just enough time to test the conditions before returning to the pits.
Jenson Button and Jules Bianchi are the first to record a time on the sheets. 2:00.510 for the Brit and 2:07.578 for the Frenchman from Marussia.
As is often the case when it rains, not much happens on the track. However, the weather forecast does not predict better conditions for the rest of the events. After 30 minutes, only seven drivers have recorded a time. Jenson Button leads ahead of Pérez, Gutierrez, Grosjean, Räikkönen, Chilton, and Bianchi. There’s not much more hustle in the minutes that follow.
At mid-session, Mark Webber takes a risk by fitting dry-weather tires. The Australian driver remains cautious as he approaches La Source and Eau Rouge. The future retiree improves in the second sector but remains 3 seconds off Jenson Button’s benchmark time at the end of the 7 kilometers of the circuit.
34 minutes remain when the McLaren drivers improve the best time of this session. Pérez clocked 2:00.439 ahead of Button at 2:00.460. Vergne is third at this moment of the first practice session of the weekend. On the next lap, both men go under the two-minute mark, and Button regains the advantage over his teammate with a time of 1:58.940. This time is then improved by Daniel Ricciardo with a lap completed in 1:58.337. There are now many cars on track as less than 30 minutes remain before the checkered flag.
Fifteen minutes from the end, Fernando Alonso is leading with a time of 1:55.198, ahead of the Force India cars of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil. This top trio will remain unchanged until the end of these first practice sessions.
Results of the Free Practice 1 of the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix
| N° | Driver | Team | Times | Gap | Laps |
1 | Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:55.198 | 11 | |
2 | di Resta | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:55.224 | +0.026 | 10 |
3 | Sutil | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:55.373 | +0.175 | 11 |
4 | Perez | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:55.518 | +0.320 | 14 |
5 | Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:55.614 | +0.416 | 10 |
6 | Vettel | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:55.636 | +0.438 | 14 |
7 | Gutierrez | Sauber F1 Team | 1:55.954 | +0.756 | 18 |
8 | Hülkenberg | Sauber F1 Team | 1:56.110 | +0.912 | 11 |
9 | Ricciardo | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:56.770 | +1.572 | 14 |
10 | Bottas | Williams F1 Team | 1:56.858 | +1.660 | 18 |
11 | Massa | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:56.863 | +1.665 | 10 |
12 | Maldonado | Williams F1 Team | 1:57.081 | +1.883 | 14 |
13 | Vergne | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:57.084 | +1.886 | 17 |
14 | Button | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:57.281 | +2.083 | 14 |
15 | Hamilton | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:57.358 | +2.160 | 10 |
16 | Kovalainen | Caterham F1 Team | 1:57.821 | +2.623 | 16 |
17 | Van der Garde | Caterham F1 Team | 1:57.887 | +2.689 | 16 |
18 | Chilton | Marussia F1 Team | 1:58.600 | +3.402 | 14 |
19 | Webber | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:58.929 | +3.731 | 12 |
20 | Bianchi | Marussia F1 Team | 1:59.209 | +4.011 | 12 |
21 | Räikkönen | Lotus F1 Team | 1:59.441 | +4.243 | 11 |
22 | Grosjean | Lotus F1 Team | 2:03.176 | +7.978 | 15 |
From our special correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps
