Practice Two: Another P1 for Alonso

Fernando Alonso made it two from two at Spa on Friday, setting the pace in both the wet and the dry

Alonso was the man to beat in Friday morning's drenched Practice One, easily beating his rivals by almost eight-tenths of a second. And he followed that up by setting the pace on a dry track later in the day.

Although Practice Two began on a wet track with the drivers using full wet tyres, it wasn't long before they switched to the intermediates and finally the slicks just after the halfway mark.

However, their running in the dry was cut short when spectators were seen in a dangerous area, resulting in the session being red flagged for 12 minutes.

And with the action underway again it was Alonso who topped the charts, beating Adrian Sutil and Lewis Hamilton.

Report: The rain had abated by the time Practice Two got underway at Spa, however, the track remained rather wet as the drivers put in their installation laps. Pedro de la Rosa immediately posted a 2:09.031 with Sakon Yamamoto slotting in behind him. The duo, though, were dropped by Felipe Massa, who went almost five seconds quicker. Jenson Button took second place, two seconds adrift of the Ferrari driver. The pack was dropped as Fernando Alonso, who led the way in Practice One, crossed the line with a 2:00.481 to take first place.

With the track conditions continuing to improve, Michael Schumacher headed out, although on the full wets, not the intermediates like his rivals. The German crossed the line in sixth place after a bit of a lock-up through the Bus Stop chicane. Alonso, who was on the intermediates, continued lapping and lowered the benchmark time to a 1:59.490. The Spaniard's time was soon beaten by Lewis Hamilton, the McLaren man taking 0.091s off it.

Problems for Timo Glock and Tonio Liuzzi both of whom crashed just seconds after each other. Glock's accident was caused when he got onto the white line at Turn Nine, lost control and hit the barriers side on while Liuzzi's was the result of a run into the gravel, which damaged the front of his car. The Force India driver was able to continue, Glock, though, wasn't.

Felipe Massa was the next to lead the way, followed by Mark Webber and then Robert Kubica with a 1:58.311. Adrian Sutil overhauled them all, 0.162s up Kubica while Rubens Barrichello took fifth place ahead of Michael Schumacher. There was a few drivers slipping and sliding with Schumacher, Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov all having moments.

With the track rapidily drying, it was only a matter of time before someone ventured out on slicks. That someone was Jaime Alguersuari with the Toro Rosso driver posting a 1:58.317, which put him up into third place. The Spaniard went quickest on his next lap, 1:55.329, while Petrov took second place, almost a full two seconds off the pace.

More drivers opted for the slick tyres, soft and hard, resulting in lap times tumbling. Not for Webber, though. A problem resulted in the Aussie slowing right down and crawling around the track before finally getting back up on the pace. Meanwhile, Kobayashi went quickest, followed by Button while Massa moved up to second with Hulkenberg third. Sutil was the next to top the charters before he was overhauled by Button only to then retake the P1 slot off the McLaren driver. Hamilton joined the fight at the front, taking second with Kubica third quickest.

With 16 minutes remaining in the session the red flags were waved with Race Control reporting that there "may be spectators in a dangerous area." The session restarted with four minutes on the clock and a train of cars waiting to go out. And although the clock continued to count down for some reason the light at the end of the pit lane did not change until only three minutes were left.

Alonso went quickest as the chequered flag fell.

Times:

Pos/ Driver/ Team/ Time /Gap /Laps
1./ Fernando Alonso/ Ferrari /1m49.032s/ 25
2. /Adrian Sutil/ Force India-Mercedes /1m49.157s +0.125/ 17
3./ Lewis Hamilton/ McLaren-Mercedes/ 1m49.248s +0.216/ 14
4. /Robert Kubica/ Renault/ 1m49.282s +0.250/ 20
5. /Felipe Massa/ Ferrari/ 1m49.588s +0.556/ 23
6./ Sebastian Vettel/ Red Bull-Renault/ 1m49.689s +0.657/ 19
7. /Jenson Button/ McLaren-Mercedes/ 1m49.755s +0.723/ 20
8. /Pedro de la Rosa/ Sauber-Ferrari/ 1m50.081s +1.049/ 27
9. /Rubens Barrichello/ Williams-Cosworth/ 1m50.128s +1.096/ 22
10./ Kamui Kobayashi/ Sauber-Ferrari/ 1m50.200s +1.168/ 24
11./ Vitaly Petrov/ Renault/ 1m50.251s +1.219/ 24
12./ Michael Schumacher/ Mercedes/ 1m50.341s +1.309/ 23
13./ Nico Rosberg/ Mercedes/ 1m50.382s +1.350/ 21
14./ Jaime Alguersuari/ Toro Rosso-Ferrari/ 1m50.682s +1.650/ 25
15. /Nico Hulkenberg/ Williams-Cosworth/1m50.831s +1.799/ 20
16. Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1m51.520s +2.488 17
17./ Sebastien Buemi /Toro Rosso-Ferrari/ 1m51.523s +2.491/ 25
18./ Mark Webber/ Red Bull-Renault/ 1m51.636s +2.604/ 19
19./ Heikki Kovalainen/ Lotus-Cosworth/ 1m53.480s +4.448/ 15
20./ Jarno Trulli/ Lotus-Cosworth/ 1m53.639s +4.607/ 21
21./ Lucas di Grassi/ Virgin-Cosworth/ 1m54.325s +5.293/ 17
22./ Bruno Senna/ HRT-Cosworth/ 1m55.751s +6.719 /24
23./ Sakon Yamamoto/ HRT-Cosworth/ 1m56.039s +7.007/ 21
24./ Timo Glock/ Virgin-Cosworth /2m03.179s +14.147/ 3

Source: Planet-F1