RALLY NEWS

Lewis Hamilton took pole for Mercedes in a dramatic, rain-swept qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps.

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the final free practice session in Belgium, finishing just a tenth of a second clear of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with Mark Webber third for Red Bull Racing.

Run under overcast skies the session began in traditional fashion with the field beginning with longer runs, this weekend conducted on Pirelli’s hard compound tyre.

The incident-free opening 45 minutes saw Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne at the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:49.479, almost three tenths of a second ahead of Vettel, with Kimi Raikkonen third.

RALLY NEWS

The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps displayed all its legendary contrariness on Friday. After the dark, low skies and rain of the morning, the clouds cleared for a dry, sunny afternoon under blue skies. As such the pace picked up for FP2 as the Belgian Grand Prix field got down to serious practice on slick tyres.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso topped the first practice session of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend with a time of 1:55.198 as rain before and during the session disrupted team preparations.

The first half of FP1 was defined by the light but steady rain that had fallen across the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the run-up to the 90-minute session. Despite the showers ceasing just in time for the start, the track was wet and never properly dried as light rain hung in the air throughout the hour and a half.