Hamilton fastest in afternoon practice

Lewis Hamilton has finished on top of the second free practice session in Belgium as the rain went away from the circuit on Friday afternoon. The World Champion led the way from the Toyota of Timo Glock and the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen which, like Jaime Alguersuari, stopped on track in the final minute.

With rain having hit Spa-Francorchamps early on in the first 90-minute session on Friday morning, the crowd was able to enjoy sunshine and blue skies in the afternoon as air temperatures rose to a pleasant 18°C (64°F) and the track to 29°C (84°C), almost double that of earlier on in the day.

Hamilton's quickest lap of the session and the best of the weekend so far came in the form of 1:47.201 as the World Champion hopes to retrieve the win he lost last year this weekend. Toyota's pace improved dramatically from that witnessed in Valencia last weekend, to confirm second and seventh places for Glock and Jarno Trulli respectively.

Kimi Räikkönen's day was one of mixed emotions; despite the triple Belgian Grand Prix winner setting the third best time in practice two, the Finn's Ferrari ran off the track at the Fagnes chicane on its final run before coasting its way off the circuit on the inside of Paul Frère curve. Hamilton was also caught out, taking the same line as the Ferrari driver due to spilt oil being dropped onto the race track from the stranded Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari, which set a time quick enough for ninth place.

Mark Webber was the leading Red Bull in fourth position and, more significantly, the highest-placed championship contender as team-mate Sebastian Vettel completed his day tenth - with an engine used earlier in the season - and the two Brawn GP cars of championship-leading Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello wound up way down in 17th and 18th positions respectively.

Two stars in the top ten were F1 new boy Romain Grosjean, who was the leading Renault driver in fifth place, and the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella in sixth. Nico Rosberg was uncharacteristically off the pace and the penultimate of the runners as the Ferrari of Luca Badoer wound up in 20th and last position once again, just over two seconds down on Hamilton's effort.

The third and final practice session at Spa will begin at 11am local time on Saturday (BST +1 / GMT +2) and can be followed live on GPUpdate.net.

Source: GP Update