2014 Belgian Grand Prix Friday - Practice
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Bottas with two personal best sectors (one and three), but he can't quite break into the 52s bracket.
Hamilton loses the rear end of his Mercedes going up Eau Rouge, but recovers the car to avoid contact with the barriers.
Van der Garde reports a familiar issue: "The power is still not correct. There's still hesitation in some places!"
He's down in 17th at the moment.
He's down in 17th at the moment.
Vettel the last driver in the pits.
Our trackside sleuth BEN ANDERSON reports: "Flow-vis paint on the inside of the Red Bull rear wing, so clearly some aero testing going on in the final part of this session."
The top three drivers in this session - Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso are the only three drivers to have been quickest in an FP1 session this year.
The track is getting busy now. All bar four drivers are running.
Hamilton back on track, perhaps to have a crack at his team-mate's P1 time. He needs to find just under a tenth.
Sutil has done the least running of anyone so far in this session with eight laps. Lotterer, Perez and Rosberg have all done 17 laps.
Our man EDD STRAW reports: "Forces the cars are subjected to at Eau Rouge are shown by the track surface. On the apex, the surface has been ground away by bottoming, while streaky channels have been ground in places over the years in the first part of the corner. Plenty of cars smoking as they grind the underneath."
Only Perez, Hulkenberg and van der Garde are on track with just over 16 minutes to go.
Raikkonen heads back to the pits after a stint of battling with his Ferrari. He's currently fifth quickest, albeit more than a second slower than Alonso (who is third fastest).
Raikkonen's engineer has reported temperature problems with the ERS on the Finn's car.
In FP1 at Spa last year, Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil in the Force India cars set the second and third fastest times respectively.
Perez is sixth and Hullkenberg in eighth in the session so far.
Perez is sixth and Hullkenberg in eighth in the session so far.
Perez jumps from ninth to sixth with his best lap of the session – a 1m52.903s.
Replays show Kvyat aping Hamilton and Rosberg by running wide at Pouhon. Raikkonen, meanwhile, spins and continues at La Source.
Lotterer is 0.1s quicker than team-mate Ericsson as it stands.
Bianchi meanwhile is 1.4s ahead of Rossi in the Marussia.
Bianchi meanwhile is 1.4s ahead of Rossi in the Marussia.
Button, who locked-up rather badly on the previous lap reports: "The DRS stayed open then. I couldn't close it."
Hamilton has been quickest in five first practice sessions so far this year, with Alonso and Rosberg setting the fastest times in three FP1s apiece.
Less than 30 minutes to go and the top 10 is as follows:
1 Rosberg
2 Hamilton
3 Alonso
4 Button
5 Magnussen
6 Hulkenberg
7 Ricciardo
8 Bottas
9 Vettel
10 Perez
1 Rosberg
2 Hamilton
3 Alonso
4 Button
5 Magnussen
6 Hulkenberg
7 Ricciardo
8 Bottas
9 Vettel
10 Perez
Hamilton is given some not-so-helpful advice: "Nico found a lot of time in the last chicane, but you are probably aware of that."
Ricciardo the next driver to improve, moving into seventh with a 1m52.972s.
Decent improvement for Button. He's now fourth fastest with a 1m52.404s, having set the fastest S1 of the session.
Vettel reports: "OK, there is something wrong with the up-shift: second to third, third to fourth."
The reigning champion also runs wide at Pouhon, but manages to correct himself.
The reigning champion also runs wide at Pouhon, but manages to correct himself.
Stopwatch
Rosberg re-claims top spot with a 1m51.577s.
Stopwatch
And he goes fastest. Hamilton now top with a 1m51.674s.
Hamilton looks as if he's about to improve with a personal best S1, and the best S2 overall...
Ericsson has a spin at La Source but gets going again with no damage.
Grosjean reports: "I have the same problem with the rears like I did with the first run."
He is told that team-mate Maldonado is experiencing the same issue as well.
He is told that team-mate Maldonado is experiencing the same issue as well.
Lotterer has now moved ahead of his team-mate Ericsson. The German is now 20th.
Grosjean moves into the top 10 with a 1m53.597s, which puts him ninth.
Maldonado now back in the pits, with his team-mate Grosjean taking over as the sole driver on-track.
Daniil Kvyat won the first GP3 race at Spa last year - his first of three wins that saw him take the title.
The Russian driver lies in 11th, 2.205s off Rosberg's fastest time of the session so far.
Maldonado is told: "This is in engine test mode, so please push on the in-lap"
Marussia and Max Chilton are both trending on Twitter - clearly the chaos surrounding driver sponsorship and 'contractual issues' is making the team one of the talking points of this race weekend over some of the bigger teams.
Lotterer reports over the radio: "I'm getting used to everything. Balance wise, it's a bit 'pointy' and I don't want to be getting on the kerb at Eau Rouge."
At the age of 32, Lotterer is the fifth oldest driver on the grid behind Raikkonen, Button, Massa and Alonso - and is a full 15 years older than Max Verstappen will be when he makes his F1 debut next year.
After a brief period of having no cars out on the track, Pastor Maldonado breaks the silence.
Mechanics surround Button's car in the garage. Some frantic activity around the cockpit and footwell suggest there could be a problem with the pedals.
Less than an hour of the session remain and the current order is as follows:
1 Rosberg
2 Alonso
3 Bottas
4 Magnussen
5 Vettel
6 Perez
7 Hulkenberg
8 Hamilton
9 Button
10 Ricciardo
11 Kvyat
12 Sutil
13 Raikkonen
14 Massa
15 Grosjean
16 Vergne
17 Bianchi
18 Van der Garde
19 Ericsson
20 Lotterer
21 Rossi
22 Maldonado
1 Rosberg
2 Alonso
3 Bottas
4 Magnussen
5 Vettel
6 Perez
7 Hulkenberg
8 Hamilton
9 Button
10 Ricciardo
11 Kvyat
12 Sutil
13 Raikkonen
14 Massa
15 Grosjean
16 Vergne
17 Bianchi
18 Van der Garde
19 Ericsson
20 Lotterer
21 Rossi
22 Maldonado
By: Dan Cross, Andrew van Leeuwen, AUTOSPORT staff, Matt Beer, Pablo Elizalde
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