» Belgian GP: Schumacher’s early lap guarantees top spot in FP1

Michael Schumacher kick-started his twentieth anniversary celebration weekend in particularly appropriate fashion by going quickest in the first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix.

That being said, only he and Mercedes GP team-mate Nico Rosberg were able to post a lap-time while the circuit was at its driest, before the heavens opened and doused the track.

Rain hit the circuit just ten minutes into the session, and while it abated about halfway through, the conditions never improved for any other driver to stand a chance at overhauling the silver cars’ initial times, which were the only under the two-minute mark.

It was certainly a suitable way for Schumacher – sporting a one-off gold helmet design that will now confuse many viewers into thinking he’s Rosberg! – to start his anniversary weekend.

No one ventured out on track for nearly half an hour once the rain started, preferring to hold off on their wet-weather running given the limited supply of wet-weather tyres available to them this weekend. Several sections of the circuit – most notably in the middle ‘loop’ sector of the lap had significant areas of standing water, as well as a few rivers crossing the track.

Sebastian Vettel was eventually the first man who decided to brave the conditions, heading out for a single exploratory lap. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton did likewise, but he nearly lost it at Blanchimont and decided to head back to the safety of the garage.

Eventually the rest of the field trickled out to test the conditions, with Force India’s Adrian Sutil being the first to post a wet-track lap-time, some 21 seconds slower than Schumacher’s earlier benchmark time.

In the end, Jenson Button would continue his wet-weather prowess by posting the quickest lap time in the conditions, with his time of 2:02.740 still over eight seconds off the fastest time.

With Button’s best time coming at the death of the session, the top ten was completed by Vettel, Hamilton, Sutil, Felipe Massa, Rubens Barrichello, Jaime Alguersuari and Kamui Kobayashi.

The session saw to major incidents, both at the still-nameless Turn 9 left-hander that follows the Rivage hairpin. Bruno Senna’s return to the racing cockpit got off to a poor start when he spun into the tyres, and the Brazilian was quickly followed by Paul di Resta, who backed his Force India into the same spot.

Paul di Resta follows suit and slaps the wall

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2011 Belgian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	1:54.355	13
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	+ 0.474	15
3.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 8.385	8
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 9.397	10
5.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 9.946	7
6.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 10.308	18
7.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 10.373	10
8.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 11.036	12
9.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 12.228	16
10.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 12.531	15
11.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 12.700	12
12.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 13.126	15
13.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Renault T128	+ 13.878	14
14.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 13.884	14
15.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 14.563	10
16.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 15.437	8
17.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 17.923	13
18.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 18.034	10
19.	Jérôme d’Ambrosio	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 18.417	13
20.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 18.703	8
21.	Karun Chandhok	Lotus Renault T128	+ 18.735	11
22.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault R31	+ 19.246	10
23.	Bruno Senna	Renault R31	+ 19.985	7
24.	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 20.578	11