Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... SPA!  It's a lovely thing to have F1 back after a month layoff, and what better way to come back than to race at the best road course in the world?  But with the wonderful track comes not so wonderful weather, and today's practice sessions proved to be no exception to the general rule.  Yes, it rained... a lot, particularly in the first session.

In the second practice session, it rained for about the first 15 minutes or so.  The track then slowly began to dry, so that by the last 20 minutes or so everybody was using their slick tires.  Then came the strangest message I've ever seen from Race Control: "Red Flag Conditions: Spectators in potentially dangerous area."

It appears that some fans may have been spotted inside the fences somewhere around the circuit, so the little-seen Race Control Car came out on track to make a couple of leisurely laps, just to make sure there wasn't anybody traipsing around the asphalt.  While there's a red flag, all action stops but the session clock keeps running.  When the track was finally "cleared", there were only three minutes left.  Mark Webber's radio communication said it all: "We've been waiting all day for some dry laps.  Now that we've got it, they stop us..."

Eventually HWMNBN turned the fastest lap of the session, kicking Adrian Sutil and his Force India off the top spot for practically the first time all session.  Could we see another Force India on pole tomorrow?  Let's just hope so!

Other than that, though, the session was a little dull.  While I did watch the whole thing, it was more for the novelty of seeing F1 again than for the action.  Tomorrow though, the action is for real with qualifying... and it's predicted to be raining.  See you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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