Belgium – Free Practice 1: Kobayashi at ease in the rain

For their return to the classroom, it’s a drenched track that greets the drivers, with the air temperature barely exceeding 13°C. Bad news for Valtteri Bottas and Dani Clos, who were supposed to take advantage of this free practice session to drive the Williams and HRT, respectively. It’s also bad news for the teams, as conditions are hardly favorable for testing the new parts introduced at Spa.

The conditions do not discourage Jean-Eric Vergne who, at the wheel of his Toro Rosso, is the first to take to the track. Several drivers follow suit, but only Kobayashi stays on track to set an initial benchmark time of 2:23.141 on Rain tires. The Japanese driver improves on the next lap before returning to the pits: 2:17.705 for the Sauber driver. After him, drivers take turns on the track without activating the stopwatch, and the Spa-Francorchamps circuit gradually falls into silence.

We have to wait until mid-session to see a driver – in the person of Ricciardo – venture onto the track, as the Ardennes sky offers a slight respite. From the start, the Australian sets the best time at 2:14.520. But after also being surpassed by Vergne and Maldonado, the best time goes to Kamui Kobayashi, at 2:11.389, while on the track, the drivers make multiple mistakes, notably at the braking point of Les Combes, at the end of the Kemmel straight.

Under the checkered flag, and as Lewis Hamilton completes his one and only timed lap of the session, Kobayashi’s best time remains uncontested. The Japanese driver leads Maldonado and Ricciardo at the end of a session dominated by rain, where he was the most diligent on the track with 19 laps completed.

On the other hand, the Ferrari drivers played it safe by staying warm in the garages, even though they ventured onto the track at the very end of the session, a brief outing that could be detrimental to Felipe Massa’s car. The Ferrari driver was forced to stop his F2012 in the bus stop escape route, with a thick white plume billowing from the rear of his vehicle. An engine failure for the Paulista? If that were the case, it wouldn’t be alarming, as teams often use engines nearing the end of their cycle on Fridays.

The problem encountered by the Ferrari driver was, however, the only major incident of the session, even though Michael Schumacher remained stationary in his pit for about ten minutes at the end of the session after complaining of a vibration on his F1 W03.

Free Practice 3 Standings of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix: