Webber fastest in the dry

Webber fastest in the dry
At Spa-Francorchamps

The track was still pretty wet when practice for the Belgian Grand Prix resumed this afternoon.

Intermediate tyres were the most popular choice among the field, at the beginning of the session.

Work started immediately as the teams were eager to make up for the time lost this morning. Red Bull’s Mark Webber set the early pace. Alonso soon joined him at the front, while Vettel, Massa and the McLaren drivers remained in the pits.

The Australian gathered more speed lap after lap, consistently lowering the benchmark. This was still not enough to prevent Senna from edging him in ever-improving conditions. Alguersuari also went quicker while Sebastian Vettel took over at the front with a comfortable margin.

He didn’t stay long on top though as Alonso and Buemi beat him. He swiftly reacted and claimed 2nd spot, one tenth of a second behind the Ferrari driver. Then it was Button who stormed at the front while Schumacher improved and moved up to P2. Hamilton and Massa were yet to show up.

Back on track for a second run, Mark Webber immediately reclaimed the lead with Nico Rosberg hot on his heels. A drying line was now appearing, prompting some drivers to get some running on slicks. Alonso and Massa were the first to gamble on it. It paid off for the Spaniard who set the fastest time, 4.6s clear of Webber.

More drivers followed suit and it all changed again. Alonso and Schumacher traded fastest times while Hamilton slowly gathered speed. Rosberg then took over at the front, before Vettel popped up at the top of the timesheet. Halfway through the session, the World Champion was leading from Rosberg, Hamilton, Schumacher and Webber.

As rain was approaching quickly, many drivers quickly came in to pass a set of soft tyres. When the expected rain shower arrived, Webber was leading from Alonso, Hamilton, Button and Massa. This signaled the end of today’s dry running. Everybody sheltered in the pits and waited for the skies to clear.

With a sparse tyre allocation for the weekend, the teams were keen to preserve their wet rubber for qualification and the race. They still sent their drivers on track in the final minutes, on the intermediate compounds, but there was obviously no improvement.