Spa-Francorchamps, 22 August – The Scuderia Ferrari drivers both completed 35 laps today which, to put some perspective on it, is 9 laps short of Sunday’s race distance. They say the driver can make a difference on this 7 kilometre Belgian rollercoaster and the talented Mr. Alonso would seem to have proved that, given that on a track where top speed counts for a lot, he still hauled his F14 T to third place on both of today’s time sheets, even though the Ferrari car is known to lack some high speed pace. Kimi Raikkonen is no slouch round here either, as he’s won the Belgian Grand Prix four times, but we will now have to wait until tomorrow to see what the Finn can do, as he was slowed by an electrical problem this afternoon.
Inevitably the two cars that were quicker than Fernando’s were silver, with Lewis Hamilton fastest at the end of the day, followed by Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. This trio were the only drivers to break the 1minute 50 seconds barrier. Rounding off the top six were the Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, fourth and sixth, split by the McLaren of Jenson Button.
Rain is a distinct possibility for tomorrow, which could make qualifying very interesting as a wet track will diminish the importance of the horsepower factor. There were two new names on the timing sheets today: after some confusion, Alex Rossi drove only FP1 for Marussia, before handing back the car to Max Chilton and, at Caterham, three times Le Mans 24 Hours winner Andre Lotterer has replaced Kamui Kobayashi this weekend.