The famous 6.976km Spa-Francorchamps track is a favourite of most F1 drivers but it is rare to get through a Spa weekend without some form of rain. The weather projections also suggest that Sunday could witness the first wet race of the year.

Panasonic Toyota Racing third driver Ricardo Zonta set the 4th fastest time of the day in the opening practice, lapping in 1m49.445s. The pace-setting time was 1m48.206s from Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Raikkonen, ahead of the Anglo-German team’s test driver Alexander Wurz (1m48.216s). Third quickest was Giancarlo Fisichella’s Mild Seven Renault (1m48.619s). Mark Webber’s BMW Williams was 5th quickest ( 1m49.692s), ahead of Jenson Button’s Lucky Strike BAR Honda (1m49.890s).

Zonta explained that conditions throughout the session were tricky but useful: “We had a chance to try the Michelin shallow wet tyres at the beginning and then changed onto dry tyres as the track dried. It gave us an idea of how the balance changed and, if the weather forecasts are accurate, we could be needing that information later in the weekend…”

Jarno Trulli set the 7th fastest time (1m50.542s) and Ralf Schumacher was 9th (1m50.820s).

“I think it’s fair to say that we were expecting a wet weekend when we came here,” Trulli said, “but it’s going to be tough because we don’t have much experience in the wet this year. Last year, however, I managed to take pole position in similar conditions and it would be very nice to repeat that!”

Schumacher added: “It is the same for everyone, of course, but with the conditions as they are, it could be very hard to make the correct dry tyre choice if that is the condition that we get for the race. We will have to see what develops tomorrow before we have a more accurate picture of exactly where we are.”

Given the lack of wet weather running this year and the fact that we have not yet seen the performance of the latest Michelin wet weather tyres, some observers were surprised that nobody ventured out in the heavy rain of the second session. Red Bull driver Antonio Liuzzi did leave the pits but crashed on his first lap, while Fernando Alonso completed an installation lap. Nobody else left the pits.

“I think the rain was just too heavy and the conditions too dangerous,” said Technical Director, Chassis, Mike Gascoyne. “This is a quick track and with deep surface water and the threat of aquaplaning, you can have a big accident. Ricardo at least managed to evaluate the shallow groove wet tyres in the morning and both race drivers ran on a dry circuit, so at least we have some data to work with.”