Ferrari Storm Spa Wet Practice
As was predicted the rains came down in torrents during the first session of Friday practice for this weekends Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. The second session was also wet at the start but the circuit soon dried out and drivers moved from full wet tyres to intermediates and eventually, for the last part of the practice, to slicks, but no matter what the conditions were it was clear who was leading the pack.
In both sessions and in all conditions it was Fernando Alonso who led the way. We thought that the Ferrari was going to be strong, but many were surprised by how strong. Alonso has always been a skilled driver in the wet, but nowadays many of the top drivers are at least as good; certainly both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have on many occasions proven their skills on wet circuits.
In fact in both practice session the drivers who came closest to Alonso were Hamilton in the McLaren and Robert Kubica in the Renault. The Renault’s strong performance might even be more surprising than that of the Ferrari, but even more of a surprise were the Red Bulls which for once seemed to be struggling. In first practice Mark Webber was the seventh fastest and over two seconds off the pace. His team mate Sebastian Vettel was sis better. He was fourth fastest and 1.6 seconds down.
Unfortunately the second practice was red flagged sixteen minutes before the scheduled finish as some spectators had wandered into an unsafe area.
As a result of his Friday’s performance Alonso is now the joint favourite along with Vettel to win the race and they are priced at 9/4 by Sky Bet. Jenson Button is priced at 10/1 and Lewis Hamilton is 4/1.
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