2009 Belgian Grand Prix Race day at Spa-Francorchamps

There are five minutes to go before the start of the formation lap at one of the world's finest circuits.

The teams are now bolting their final choice of tyres on to the cars. Both tyres have provided good speed at times this weekend, but the harder option does seem to provide a more stable long run.

Vijay Mallya wishes Fisichella good luck as his Italian driver readies himself to start from the front at Spa.

Adrian Sutil puts his skid lid on and is ready to climb aboard the Force India. As we noted in the build-up, the German needs to get a great start today.

Jenson Button confirms that the issue that caused him to be late to the grid was a problem with the radio in his Brawn, which is now resolved.

The large crowd at rise in unison for the Belgian national anthem, as it rings out over Spa-Francorchamps.

The pits are now closed, 15 minutes before the formation lap.

The track temperature is 29 Celsius in the patchy sunshine.

Button leaves the lane now and is on his way to the grid.

Jenson Button is clearly concerned with some minor problem in the cockpit of his Brawn. The BGP 001 is still in the garage, but the team time available. The pitlane closes in just over six minutes.

Lewis Hamilton chats with engineer Phil Prew on the grid. The world champion could still be a factor today with his KERS launch and heavy fuel load from 12th on the grid.

A passing cloud has shaded the grid as the drivers continue to arrive on the front straight.

Fisichella reaches the back of the grid and is pushed towards the front by his mechanics.

Jarno Trulli heads out in the Toyota and practices a start at the end of the pitlane.

Fisichella is tailed by Hamilton's McLaren as they drive around to the grid.

Polesitter Giancarlo Fisichella pulls out of the Force India garage on soft tyres.

The pitlane light flicks to green and the drivers can now come out onto the track for the reconnaissance lap to the grid.

They have 15 minutes to make sure they are happy with their cars, before the pitlane closes.

Nakajima

The anonymous man of Formula 1 this year would seem to be Kazuki Nakajima, while the spotlight has been on the others at various stages of the season.

It is perhaps a benefit to the Toyota protege that he has fallen under the media radar this year, when you look at his results. A 10-2 deficit in qualifying can be explained to some extent by difficulties that the Japanese has experienced in the crucial knock-out session - the latest of these in Valencia when he was forced to pull off when easily placed to progress through Q1.

But it is the race performances that provide the information to ensure that Kazuki's is begining to feel the heat. While Rosberg has amassed 29.5 points and lies a strong fifth in the drivers' standings, Nakajima has yet to put a mark on the board.

Numerous first lap incidents have hindered the 24-year-old, and as rumours persist regarding Toyota's engine deal with Williams for next season, the spotlight is now falling on Nakajima's future.

Today he starts from 18th place on the grid with the heaviest car, and will look to assert himself in the middle of the race and make up places prior to his late pitstop.

The pitlane will open in ten minutes for the cars to make their way around to the grid.

On the lap to the grid, the teams will be eager to check the vital radio links, while the drivers will have little time to get a feel for the track conditions before the start of the race.

The Ferrari team has changed the gearbox on Luca Badoer's car follwing the Italian's crash in qualifying yesterday. The five-place grid penalty will make no difference to his 20th and last starting place.

Fuel rig

We continue with our look at the fuel loads of the cars, and down in the second half of the field there is a lot going on.

If ever Adrian Sutil needs a rocket start it is today. He will leave the grid from 11th place but is likely to be mugged by at least one McLaren on the opening lap. To compound the issue, team-mate Fisichella has been taking all the plaudits over the last 24 hours, so Sutil will be especially keen the keep the KERS-aided MP4-24s at bay, or his chances of points could be gone.

Fernando Alonso knows how to fight his way out of a corner, and will also be keen to dispatch Sutil as quickly as possible. Look for the feisty Spaniard trying to follow the McLarens through the pack - especially between laps 10 and 20 as the first stops occur for the front-runners.

All this spells disaster on paper for championship leader Jenson Button. He has a heavy car and a lot to lose if he doesn't score this afternoon. Earlier this week Jenson said that he needs to be more attack-minded, and from 14th that will certainly be the case. If he can't nose ahead of the McLarens on the opening lap, then he too will fall victim to KERS.

Luca Badoer's future with Ferrari may be uncertain, but he should provide some entertainment from the last spot on the grid. Jaime Alguersuari, Kazuki Nakajima and Romain Grosjean immediately ahead of him are all heavier and pitting around three laps later. This should enable the Italian to stay with them and possibly fight his way past. Assuming Badoer manages this, he will need to pull out a gap to head off the threat of quick laps from the others prior to their late stop.

Force India

There are a lot of similar fuel strategies at the sharp end of the grid, adding to the unpredictable feel to today's race.

Giancarlo Fisichella clearly found the ideal setup for single lap pace in the Force India as he sensationally took pole, on merit, with a reasonable fuel load. The veteran Italian will will hope to finally end Force India's points drought today and certainly has a strategy to compete for the podium, even if his ultimate race pace is unclear.

Jarno Trulli and Nick Heifeld both put in strong drives to take second and third with a couple of laps more fuel than the polesitter. Both will be desperate for a good result while facing uncertain futures.

Rubens Barrichello qualified fourth with the lightest car in the field, hinting at a relative lack of pace from the Brawn in qualifying. It is an aggressive approach for the Brazilian and he will need to try and make progress in the first corner scramble. Robert Kubica behind him is due to stop around the same time as Fisichella.

The danger man in the top ten is clearly Kimi Raikkonen in the KERS-quipped Ferrari. The Finn has looked on inspired form all weekend and has the fuel load to challenge for the win if he can dispatch some cars on the first lap.

The Red Bull camp clearly opted for a heavy strategy, thinking it was best to be fuelled heavier than the KERS car of Raikkonen, and in a position to pass at the stops, rather than being jumped from behind off the grid then stuck on a compromised strategy. Their plan has been scuppered, however, by the turn of pace from the pack of cars now ahead on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel set a good time, given his fuel load, but was left lamenting a mistake at Turn 14 on his flying lap. Had he avoided the slip-up, he would have been in a very strong position further up the grid. Despite showing excellent race pace on Friday, the Red Bull pair will have to fight up the order to take as many points as they can out of Button and Brawn.

The following shows the weight of each car, fuelled for the first stint of today's grand prix: Pos Driver Weight (kg) 1. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 648.0 2. Trulli Toyota 656.5 3. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 655.0 4. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 644.5 5. Kubica BMW-Sauber 649.0 6. Raikkonen Ferrari 655.0 7. Glock Toyota 648.5 8. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 662.5 9. Webber Red Bull-Renault 658.0 10. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 670.0 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 678.5 12. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 693.5 13. Alonso Renault 684.4 14. Button Brawn-Mercedes 694.2 15. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 697.0 16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 685.0 17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 704.5 18. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 706.1 19. Grosjean Renault 704.7 20. Badoer Ferrari 691.5

Rubens Barrichello, Spa 1994

Another driver on the grid today will know exactly how Giancarlo Fisichella feels when he leads the field round on the formation lap in let's say ... not the fastest car.

At this same event in 1994, Rubens Barrichello claimed an opportunistic pole position for Jordan, beating the might of Benetton, Williams and Ferrari.

The Brazilian's achievement was thanks to a great piece of timing at the end of a wet-dry qualifying session on Friday and the surprising result was confirmed as even heavier rain fell on Saturday.

On Saturday evening, the talk was that he wouldn't even make it to La Source in front, but when the lights changed to green the Hart-engined Jordan 194 got the jump on Schumacher and Rubens shocked everyone by resisting the German's attack to lead up the hill at Eau Rouge.

The story started to unravel soon afterwards. Schumacher towed up behind Barrichello on the Kemmel straight and took the lead going into Les Combes, leaving the Jordan to slide down the order. Fifth place looked on the cards but by half distance Rubens was out of the race, having slid off at Pouhon.

Can Fisichella enjoy a more productive outing this afternoon? In just over an hour we will find out.

Jeroen Bleekemolen took a major step towards a second consecutive Porsche Supercup title with his first Spa win - his 10th in the series - this morning. The Dutchman comfortably held off pressure from podium finishers Norbert Siedler and Jan Seyffarth, getting himself back to winning ways after a spell of four consecutive victories from Rene Rast came to an end with a disastrous weekend for the young German.

Rast, Bleekemolen's closest challenger in the title race, was demoted to third on the grid after stewards punished him for cutting over the artificial grass at Turn 9 on the lap that would have claimed pole in qualifying. Sunday was even worse for Rast as he struggled to keep pace with the leaders in the early stages before falling victim to a power steering problem, finishing 17th.

Bleekemolen is now on course to clinch the title at the next round in Monza.

Giedo van der Garde scored his second GP2 sprint race victory at Spa this morning. The iSport driver surged into the lead by La Source from third on the grid as the front row men started poorly.

The Dutchman drove strongly throughout to win by 3.1s from Piquet’s Roldan Rodriguez and team-mate Diego Nunes while behind them a series of incidents eliminated a number of leading contenders.

The most significant incident was off the start as Dani Clos piled into points leader Nico Hulkenberg, triggering an accident that also took out Jerome D'Ambrosio. Championship challenger Vitaly Petrov eventually took home a single point for sixth.

Van der Garde wins sprint race at Spa

Fans

AUTOSPORT forum members are invited to join the fun throughout the day, offering thoughts and opinions as the race unfolds.

• How long will Giancarlo Fisichella keep the lead for?

• Can the Red Bull duo or Rubens Barrichello score big points to bridge the gap to championship leader Jenson Button?

• ... and what of the big names? Hamilton, Button, Kovalainen and Alonso all start in the second half of the field. Can they make the points?

Tell the world what you think.

Click the SHOW LIVE FORUM link in the red bar at the bottom of your browser window if you would like to join the debate.

Following a couple of days when the weather was never certain, there's a little more predictability for the big one.

Race day has dawned dry with some early morning sunshine, although in the last couple of hours a band of cloud has developed in the area as you can see from the latest satellite image loop. Conditions should continue dry and cloudy for the afternoon with little threat of rain.

The winds are light today as the lingering low pressure system that has affected the weather in the Ardennes has drifted north into the North Sea, replaced by much calmer conditions.

The top temperatures today should be 19 degrees in the air and in any sunny spells we could approach 30 Celsius on the track surface.

Fisichella

Qualifying produced one on the strangest grids you will ever see for a grand prix, and left you with that warm Saturday evening feeling that for once not everything in Formula 1 is predictable.

Giancarlo Fisichella started the ball rolling by surging to the front in the first 20-minute scramble. As soon as that happens you know instantly that there will be casualties at the back, and sure enough, both Toro Rosso drivers - who had been quick all weekend - found themselves on the wrong side of the fence once the early stint was complete.

But that was small potato compared to the shocking list of drop-outs at the conclusion of a pulsating second period. Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Heikki Kovalainen were all bumped out of the top ten as the tide turned in favour of Toyota and BMW. Adrian Sutil was perhaps unlucky to join the elimination list as Fisichella sailed through once again.

The amazing twist continued, with Fisichella coming out with just five minutes left on the clock, taking a couple of laps to put a heat cycle through his soft tyres and then nailing provisional pole with one minute to go. A Force India on pole ... surely not?

Well, it happened. Jarno Trulli was the only clear challenger and he couldn't better his fellow-Italian's time, leaving us with a mouth-watering grid and a myriad of possible scenarios for the race this afternoon.

Fisichella takes shock pole at Spa

Spa

Hello everyone and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for round 12 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Hot on the heels of last weekend's race at Valencia, the sport has moved 1,000 miles north-east to the scenic Ardennes, to face one of the calendar's toughest challenges.

It's the Belgian Grand Prix from 7.004 km Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

The race itself starts at 12:00 GMT, but before then we will review Saturday's action at the circuit incase you missed it, take a look at this morning's support races as well as looking at the weather forecast. We'll also analyse the fuel weights and what they mean for the first stint of the race.