Schumacher tops opening practice in Spa

For first time the year, the seven times champion leads a session. He was followed by his country man, Rosberg to make a Mercedes 1-2.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Spa-francorchamps, Belgium, Aug 26, 2011 (AFP) - Michael Schumacher topped the times for Mercedes during Friday morning's rain-soaked opening practice for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

The German, who celebrates his 20th anniversary since his debut in 1991 this weekend, clocked a lap of the Spa Francorchamps circuit in one minute 54.333 seconds on a dry track at the beginning of the session, just 0.5 seconds quicker then his Mercedes team-mate and fellow German Nico Rosberg.

As if to acknowledge the 42-year-old and seven-times champion's achievements, the heavens opened minutes afterward and prevented any following driver from beating his time.

Drivers were therefore forced to drive with extra care and caution and although the track began to dry towards the end of the session, never came close to matching Schumacher's time.

McLaren's Jenson Button was third fastest with a time of two minutes 02.740 followed by championship leader German Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.

Button's teammate and fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton was fifth quickest ahead of German Adrian Sutil of Force India.

Brazilians Felipe Messa of Ferrari and Williams driver Rubens Barrichello were seventh and eighth quickest respectively ahead of Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso and Japanese Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber who completed
the top ten.

The session also saw a frustrated Bruno Senna spin off at turn nine on his debut for Renault as did Briton Paul di Resta of Force India.

See bellow for partial results:

BELGIAN GRAND PRIX PRACTICE 1 TIMES (FP1)
POS	No.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:54.355		13
2	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:54.829	0.474	15
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2:02.740	8.385	8
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	2:03.752	9.397	10
5	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	2:04.301	9.946	7
6	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	2:04.663	10.308	18
7	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2:04.728	10.373	10
8	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	2:05.391	11.036	12
9	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	2:06.583	12.228	16
10	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	2:06.886	12.531	15
11	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2:07.055	12.700	12
12	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	2:07.481	13.126	15
13	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	2:08.233	13.878	14
14	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	2:08.239	13.884	14
15	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	2:08.918	14.563	10
16	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	2:09.792	15.437	8
17	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2:12.278	17.923	13
18	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	2:12.389	18.034	10
19	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	2:12.772	18.417	13
20	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	2:13.058	18.703	8
21	20	Karun Chandhok	Lotus-Renault	2:13.090	18.735	11
22	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	2:13.601	19.246	10
23	9	Bruno Senna	Renault	2:14.340	19.985	7
24	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	2:14.933	20.578	11