Formula One: Spa washout as heavy rain hits practice in Belgium

Unrelenting heavy rain virtually washed out the second practice session ahead of tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

It was hardly the ideal return for Formula 1 after a 33-day hiatus since the last race in Hungary at the end of July. But the capricious nature of the Ardennes struck again, casting a gloomy picture over the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the entire day.

The famous seven-kilometre track was already sodden when the rain set in ten minutes prior to the start of the first session.

At least the conditions were not too bad as a number of laps were posted during the opening 90 minutes, with Kamui Kobayashi in his Sauber quickest with a time of two minutes 11.389secs, albeit 23 seconds adrift of last year’s pole lap. During the course of the lunch break, however, the rain continued to teem down, so when it came to the start of FP2, unsurprisingly not a single driver ventured out.

It took 48 minutes for a car to emerge from the garage, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg braving the elements, followed shortly after by team-mate Michael Schumacher who this weekend celebrates his 300th grands prix.

On his 21st outing at this track, where he has previously won six times, Schumacher will have encountered such conditions on many occasions, but even by Spa standards yesterday was exceptional.

Just ten drivers set irrelevant timed laps, and only because they were on track at the end of the session and approached the start-finish line for a practice start. Six drivers overall did not even bother to venture out – Mark Webber in his Red Bull, Lotus duo Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov and Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan for HRT.

It means the teams have precious little information to go on for qualifying today and the race tomorrow. The hope, at least, is the final-hour long practice run today is dry, with the forecast looking promising.