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FP1 Report

The first practice session of the weekend took place under reassuringly muggy Belgian skies, and as a result the track was even less busy than normal in these opening sessions, making spotting a pattern even more difficult to spot. But one thing that seems clear is that the championship contenders are still some distance clear of the rest. Massa ended fastest from his team mate Kimi Raikkonen, with Lewis Hamilton desperately trying to keep pace in his McLaren, and largely failing. The Brit ended third, and his own team mate Heikki Kovalainen popped in a late lap to move up from nowheresville to 4th.

As eve, it took around 20 minutes for anything remotely meaningful to happen in the session, and when it did, it was Massa popping in a pacesetting time of 1:48.945, from Hamilton. Behind them were Fernando Alonso, who had a quick session in his Renault, and Sebastian Vettel, as Toro Rosso continued to impress after their Valencia heroics. Massa was soon pipped by Kimi Raikkonen, the recalcitrant Finn desperately looking for a performance this weekend to reignite his title defence, and looking quick early doors, but his place in P1 didn't last for long, as Massa humped in a 1:47.813 to reassert himself.

Hamilton himself was in all sorts of bother trying to keep pace with the Ferraris, and he had a minor off towards the end of the session, spinning across the grass at Les Combes and ending up running through the gravel. Fortunately, there was no real damage to the car, and he wasn't the only one to be caught out in the moist conditions, with Jenson Button having an off at the Bus Stop chicane, and Piquet Jr having his customary practice spin early on in the session.

Meanwhile, Massa was looking peerless, and shaved more time off his own quickest lap late on, to end the session with a 1:47.284, some third of a second clear of Kimi, and over half a second ahead of either McLaren.

Elsewhere in the session, Alonso ended best of the rest in 5th, just ahead of Mark Webber, who popped in a lap right at the death having spent most of the session mired towards the foot of the timesheets, but pulled one out the bag to elevate him up clear of the pesky Toro Rossos, who ended 7th and 8th. Timo Glock's Toyota and spinny Nelson Piquet Jr completed the top ten.

While some drivers had happy sessions, there were a whole litany of people who didn't. BMW had a rotten time, despite their recent upsurge in form, with want away Pole Robert Kubica moaning at length over the radio of a lack of pace. He and Nick Heidfeld ended 11th and 12th, just ahead of the Williams of Nico Rosberg, who had expected good things from the FW30 after a strong Valencia race and Monza test recently, but the team seems to have flattered to deceive. Rosberg and team mate Nakajima (18th) completed more laps than anyone else bar Bourdais, but look all at sea.

Elsewhere, Jarno Trulli was sidelined for most of the session with electrical gremlins, while further technical issues hit the Toro Rosso of Bourdais, the Frenchman finishing the session well but seemingly having a mechanical problem while practicing starts after the checkered flag fell.

The most unhappy team, though, will be Honda, the Japanese giants ending the session 19th and 20th with Button and Barrichello. As poor a performance as that team has managed in a while, and that's saying something. For their sake, lets hope the 2009 car is worth it.

Overall then, Massa continues to rule the F1 roost, albeit in a largely meaningless practice session. He'll be hoping to continue his dominant trend this afternoon in Friday's second practice session.

FP2 Report

Fernando Alonso somewhat surprisingly finished top of the pile in the afternoon practice session, after the 90 minute practice run was blighted by rain and crashes galore. Alonso popped in a 1:48.454 towards the last few moments of the session as the track dried to finish ahead of morning pace man Felipe Massa and the McLarens of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, while reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen became one of a number of drivers to crash out midway through proceedings.

Hamilton was the early pacesetter, plonking in a 1:48.805 as the track filled up quickly with rain in the air, with Massa and Raikkonen just behind, but unable to beat the time of the McLaren man. But before anyone could settle into a groove, the heavens opened, and the drivers went timidly scurrying back to their garages, all apart from Mark Webber, who spun into the barriers at Rivage and was forced to sit out the rest of the session.

After a delay of some 15 minutes, the rain abated and the cars began to trickle back out. Not much running was possible though before Kimi ended his session in inglorious style, rotating at turn nine and hitting the tyre barriers hard enough to break his rear wing and send enough standing water back onto the track as to make Giancarlo Fisichella's Force India crash as well. The incident precipitated (no pun intended) a red flag while the whole sorry mess was cleared up. After another break the session got going again, and the times tumbled on the drier track, although never really threatening to top the morning pace.

Alonso pipped Hamilton's earlier time with a few minutes to go, while Massa and Kovalainen followed him through, leaving the championship leader down in fourth, ahead of the absent Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg, who found a dry lap towards the end to grab 6th.

Sebastian Vettel was the best of the Toro Rossos in 8th, from Adrian Sutil's Force India, as the German took advantage of the carnage to break into the top ten, while Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld completed the top ten.

Robert Kubica was 11th, still unhappy about his set up, one place clear of David Coulthard in the remaining Red Bull, while the Honda pairing managed a slightly less humiliating job of things after their redundant showing in the morning, but 17th and 18th is precious little to write home about. They were kept off the back row by the car-less Webber and Nelson Piquet Jr who, shock horror, had a spin late on.

Despite Alonso's cameo and Kimi's incompetence though, it seems that Ferrari have their expected advantage over McLaren around the Spa-Francorchamps track. Now the attention turns to the internecine Ferrari tussle. Can Kimi pick himself up and actually turn in a winning performance? If not, Massa looks perfectly capable of dominating this weekend as much as he did in Valencia.