Belgian Grand Prix 2010 – Friday practice

Fernando Alonso posted the quickest lap times in each one of Friday’s two practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Spanish driver signalled his intention with a lap of 2 minutes, 0.797 seconds in a rain-affected morning session.

Then he capitalised on a chaotic finish to a mainly dry afternoon stint to stop the clock at 1:49.032, 0.125 seconds ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

Hamilton was 3rd but Red Bull’s championship leader Webber was 2.6secs off the pace at Spa.

Kubica, testing the team’s brand-new F-duct aerodynamic system, came through 4th fastest and Alonso’s teammate Massa was sixth.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, third in the drivers’ rankings, was 0.657secs behind and reigning world champion Button of McLaren was a further 0.066secs back.

Alonso ended up on top but his rivals may point to the open track on which he was able to post his top time following a red flag towards the end of second practice.

Williams driver Rubens Barrichello, who is set to become the 1st Formula 1 driver to contest 300 races this weekend, was almost 1.1secs off the pace.

Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher goes into the race with a 10-place grid penalty after nearly running Barrichello into a pit wall at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Belgian Grand Prix free practice session two times

1 ALONSO Ferrari 1m49.032s
2 SUTIL Force India 1m49.157s
3 HAMILTON McLaren 1m49.248s
4 KUBICA Renault 1m49.282s
5 MASSA Ferrari 1m49.588s
6 VETTEL Red Bull 1m49.689s
7 BUTTON McLaren 1m49.755s
8 DE LA ROSA Sauber 1m50.081s
9 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m50.128s
10 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m50.200s
11 PETROV Renault 1m50.251s
12 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m50.341s
13 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m50.382s
14 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m50.682s
15 HULKENBERG Williams 1m50.831s
16 LIUZZI Force India 1m51.520s
17 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m51.523s
18 WEBBER Red Bull 1m51.636s
19 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m53.480s
20 TRULLI Lotus 1m53.639s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m54.325s
22 SENNA HRT 1m55.751s
23 YAMAMOTO HRT 1m56.039s
24 GLOCK Virgin 2m03.179s