Heikki Kovalainen has expressed mild surprise at the heavy rain which plagued proceedings earlier today, as the Formula 1 drivers returned to the track after the lengthy summer recess. The rain fell relentlessly throughout the majority of the day, becoming increasingly heavy throughout the second practice session in the afternoon.
With the weather forecast to improve for the remainder of the weekend, many drivers saw no sense in taking to the track in increasingly treacherous conditions. This therefore saw many teams run a limited amount of laps throughout the day, particularly during the second practice session where only 18 of the 24 drivers were officially classified, and French rookie Charles Pic amazingly topped the timing sheets.
“It’s obviously good to be back to racing but a shame it had to start with weather like this.” Explained Heikki Kovalainen, who only completed 11 laps all day. “Spa’s notorious for its weather but I can’t remember seeing it rain this hard for a long time so after today there’s really not a lot to say after most of Friday was washed out. It looks like tomorrow should be dry so I think we’ll be able to get more laps done in FP3 but with the weather in Spa you can never tell.”
Due to the lack of running during the two Friday practice sessions, the third practice session tomorrow morning will most certainly be a frenetic one hour of track action, as the drivers make up for the loss of running thanks to the inclement weather conditions earlier today. However, Spa-Francorchamps has become exceedingly notorious due to it’s ever-changing weather system, and although the forecast is for a dry remainder of the weekend, the rain is never too far away when Formula 1 visits the legendary Belgian circuit.
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