Rain Tyres & Red Flags At Belgium Grand Prix

By Molli Fire • August 28, 2010

Rain tyres weren’t enough to prevent spinouts and red flags at the infamous Spa-Francorchamps circuit this weekend as rain wreaked havoc on the Formula 1 practice sessions and qualifying races. GP2 fans must’ve been pretty excited to see Timo Glock set the fastest lap in the 1st practice session @ 2:06.752 in pouring rain! However, he didn’t make it past Q2, despite lapping in P15. Fernando Alonso was quickest in the 2 practice sessions and seemed to have more grip in his newly modified Ferrari. But in the end, it was Mark Webber who shone through the clouds, celebrating his birthday with a pole position in tomorrow’s feature race.

Red Flag In Q2

The red flag appeared during Q2 when Vitaly Petrov lost control of his Renault. The car was in a bad spot & had to be removed, causing a race restart. At the press conference later that day Petrov explained:

“It was a very disappointing session for me today. On my out-lap on slick tyres, I went on the kerb at the exit of turn nine and lost control of the car because of the standing water. I wasn’t able to get started again, so that was the end of my session.”

Lotus & Virgin Advance

But with top drivers having so much trouble, underdogs found their opportunity to push through to qualify. Lotus and Virgin finished with places in the late teens and early 20′s during practice #2 and again in qualifying. Formula1.com describes the 2 teams’ results -

Practice #2:

Lotus reasserted themselves in the newbie stakes, with Heikki Kovalainen just ahead of team mate Jarno Trulli, 1m 53.480s to 1m 53.639s. Lucas di Grassi took his Virgin round in 1m 54.325s for 21st, followed by Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto’s HRTs on 1m 55.751s and 1m 56.039s respectively. Timo Glock was at the back on 2m 03.179s, having put his Virgin into the tyre wall after appearing to lose the back end on a wet kerb.

(More @ Practice Two – Alonso keeps his grip on Spa)

Q2 Race:

[After Petrov's car was removed] rain out the back of the circuit turned the whole thing into a crapshoot as cars slipped and slithered around. With seven minutes left the order was Hamilton, Button, Massa, Barrichello, Barrichello, Rosberg, Webber, Liuzzi, Schumacher, Alonso, Glock. Vettel was 17th… Then 18th, as he momentarily got bumped by Trulli. But by then it was drying slightly again, enough for the German to jump temporarily to third before another rash of improvements thanks to enhanced conditions pushed him back down to 11th as Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Barrichello, Kubica, and Schumacher jumped up.

(More @ Qualifying – Webber and Hamilton on Spa front row)

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