Belgium – Free Practice 3: Alonso Leads the Dance

After Friday’s rain, it’s a sunny sky that awaits the drivers over Spa-Francorchamps, even though the air temperature barely exceeds 15°C and the Ardennes track shows patches of moisture in some areas.

Thus, even before the session begins, the drivers rush to the end of the pit lane in order not to waste time, while they should be dividing the tasks to make up for the delay caused by the rain on Friday.

Once the necessary green light is given, some drivers complete only one lap before returning to the pits, but others are already beginning their timed stints: Jean-Eric Vergne is thus the first driver to set a benchmark time of 1:58.079.

At Lotus, the team has finally decided not to install its famous Double-DRS on any of its cars in order to focus on fine-tuning the E20 for qualifying and the race.

At the start of the session, Bruno Senna is the fastest man on track with a time of 1:52.562, but the testing is short-lived for Rosberg, who is forced to stop his F1 W03 at the side of the track, as his car appeared to suffer from a gearbox problem approaching Pouhon.

After finally attacking the Ardennes circuit, and after a few laps, Fernando Alonso improves the best time to 1:50.690 on Medium tires, while Felipe Massa, on Hard tires, is second with 1:51.099.

Thus, halfway through the session, the two Ferrari drivers are ahead of Bruno Senna, Charles Pic, Timo Glock, Nico Hülkenberg, Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Pérez, Mark Webber, and Romain Grosjean. Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, and Jenson Button are far behind, while the 2009 world champion is complaining on the radio about the balance of his MP4-27.

25 minutes before the checkered flag, the Sauber and Williams drivers move to the forefront. Sergio Pérez sets the best time, becoming the first to break the symbolic one-minute-fifty mark with 1:49.637. However, Romain Grosjean (Mediums) and then Webber (Hards) improve, with the Australian clocking a lap in 1:49.164.

In the rush of the last minutes, Sergio Pérez claims the best time with 1:48.850, but Fernando Alonso takes it away with 1:48.542, as the Sauber is fast in sector 2 where the Ferrari is better in sectors 1 and 3. By climbing to the second position, Kimi Räikkönen confirms the expectations placed on him and Lotus for this Belgian Grand Prix, as under the checkered flag, no driver is able to challenge the best time of the Spaniard.

Free Practice 3 Results of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix: