Alonso tops wet opening practice

After a three-week summer break, the Formula One World Championship got back in business at 10 o’clock this morning on the beautiful Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

The infamous Belgian weather lived up to its reputation as the field had to tackle the opening practice session on a wet track. In those conditions, the drivers just went out for their usual installation laps at first before retreating into the pits and waiting for the conditions to improve.

Timo Glock was the first to post a time on the board, as a heavy shower hit the track. The Virgin driver completed his lap in 2’06’’752.

It got slightly busier on track afterwards and, with thirty minutes gone, twelve drivers had posted a time on the board. Sutil was leading from Hamilton, Hulkenberg, de la Rosa and Alguersuari.

Track condition then slightly improved and Sebastian Vettel made the most of it to set a 2’02’’450 fastest time. He was quickly relegated to third by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Heavy rain hit the track again with less than forty minutes remaining, prompting the drivers to come back into the pits.

Schumacher and Alguersuari ventured out some fifteen minutes later but the Mercedes driver completed a single lap before pitting. The Spaniard stayed out for a while and was joined on track by Kovalainen, Yamamoto and Petrov. The four of them soon pitted, while Yamamoto was out.

The rain eased in the final ten minutes of the session and most of the field came out for a final run. Fernando Alonso managed to lower his best time to a 2’00’’797 and ended the session on top. Hamilton was second fastest with Kubica third and Vettel fourth. Sutil rounded off the top five for Force India.

Button, Webber, Kobayashi, Barrichello and Schumacher completed the top ten.