Weather forecasts Spa win for Michael

Research by our resident statistician on the Autosport.com database proves that the home of the Belgium GP has a higher percentage of wet races than any other track on the calendar. In fact, nearly a third of the races run at Spa have been affected by rain.

Schumacher lies second in the world championship standings, two points behind McLaren's Mika Hakkinen, but has not won a race since a streaming wet Canadian GP in June - making it a four-GP winless streak for the Ferrari ace.

Schumacher has taken 12 of his 40 Grand Prix victories in wet or partially wet races - a mammoth 30% - compared to points-leader Hakkinen and his McLaren team mate David Coulthard's combined tally of exactly zero...

The German loves Spa, dry or wet, and in eight Belgian GP starts has won four times. In its efforts to make it five, Ferrari will introduce a development version of its V10 in Belgium and has also tested wet weather set-ups at Fiorano in readiness for the unpredictable Ardennes weather.

"The frequent rain showers in the area always add an unknown factor to this race," he said. "Making the right decision at the right time can win or lose the race in a couple of laps. The team at Ferrari has shown how good they are at these kind of decisions and I am looking forward to the race whatever happens."

The long-range weather prospects for the Ardennes are for temperatures building up toward 30 degrees centigrade for this weekend's race. But with high humidity also forecast, heavy showers are predicted for Saturday and Sunday. With a forecast like that, who would bet against Spa victory number five for Schuey?



(Statistics are for the period between 1950-99 inclusive)

Spa-Francorchamps, 31.429%
Catalunya, 30.000%
Magny-Cours, 30.000%
Suzuka, 28.571%
Nurburgring, 26.667%
Interlagos, 22.222%
Monte Carlo, 21.277%
Montreal, 18.182%
Silverstone, 14.706%
Imola, 14.286%
A1 Ring (inc Osterreichring & Zeltweg), 13.043%
Monza, 6.000%
Hockenheim, 4.167%
Albert Park, 0.000%
Hungaroring, 0.000%
Sepang, 0.000%