» 2013 Belgian GP: Alonso tops damp FP1

Fernando Alonso has set the pace in a rain-affected opening practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix today, posting the session’s quickest time during a momentary dry spell at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

The Spaniard managed to narrowly edge out the Force India duo of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil, who rounded out the top three positions on the timesheets,

With rain showers hitting the Ardennes circuit before the opening practice session, the field’s early running was restricted to either the Full Wet or Intermediate Pirelli tyres. The McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez were fastest in this stage of proceedings, only to slip down the order as track conditions steadily improved over the course of the 90-minute session.

The track was at its best with around 20 minutes to go, and it was during this point that most of the field opted to switch to the Hard compound tyres. After the Force Indias claimed top spot on the timing monitors, it was Alonso’s turn to move ahead, with the Spaniard securing the provisionally-quickest position by just 0.026 seconds.

Pérez recovered somewhat to finish fourth-quickest, ahead of the German duo of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel in their respective Mercedes and Red Bull Racing entries. It was an uncharacteristically sloppy session from Vettel, who had an off-track moment at the final chicane, as well as a spin at the La Source hairpin.

The Saubers of Esteban Gutiérrez and Nico Hülkenberg were surprisingly well up the order in seventh and eighth respectively, while Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten positions.

In his first outing behind the wheel of the Caterham CT03 since the Spanish Grand Prix back in May, Heikki Kovalainen drove well to finish sixteenth-quickest, narrowly pipping regular driver Giedo van der Garde, while the team’s Marrusia rivals were over a second adrift.

Mark Webber and the two Lotus runners of Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean finished well down the order, opting to save mileage and serious running for the afternoon, when the conditions are expected to improve.

2013 Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:55.198		11
2.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:55.224	+ 0.026	10
3.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:55.373	+ 0.175	11
4.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:55.518	+ 0.320	14
5.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:55.614	+ 0.416	10
6.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:55.636	+ 0.438	14
7.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:55.954	+ 0.756	18
8.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:56.110	+ 0.912	11
9.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:56.770	+ 1.572	14
10.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:56.858	+ 1.660	18
11.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:56.863	+ 1.665	10
12.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:57.081	+ 1.883	14
13.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:57.084	+ 1.886	17
14.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:57.281	+ 2.083	14
15.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:57.358	+ 2.160	10
16.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham Renault CT03	1:57.821	+ 2.623	16
17.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:57.887	+ 2.689	16
18.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:58.600	+ 3.402	14
19.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:58.929	+ 3.731	12
20.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:59.209	+ 4.011	12
21.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:59.441	+ 4.243	11
22.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	2:03.176	+ 7.978	15