None of the McLaren, Red Bull, Lotus or Mercedes drivers bothered to set times at a very wet Spa track on Friday afternoon...
McLaren:
Lewis Hamilton: "It's been incredibly wet today - there were lots of rivers running across the track and lots of aquaplaning, so you had to be very wary out there. There's no real benefit to be gained from pushing the car, but there are always things we can learn, so we did a couple of installation laps to check the effects of the upgrades we've brought to this race and see how the tyres switch on in the wet. It's going to be challenging tomorrow, but everyone is in the same boat - no joke intended! If it dries out, the track will be green in the morning, so you'll be setting the car up during a couple of runs in FP3. Nevertheless, it's great to be back out on track. A Formula 1 car would be fun to drive even if it were snowing, so I just enjoyed every little bit of lap I had."
Jenson Button: "We did a couple of installation laps, but that was about it. The weather was better during the morning session because you were able to do a couple of laps with only a little bit of aquaplaning. This afternoon was extremely wet - the only reason we ran in FP2 was to do out-laps and in-laps in order to practise our starts. For most of the lap, you're not really pushing - then, halfway down the Kemmel straight, it suddenly gets wetter. It's a different type of asphalt, which doesn't drain as well. As soon as you hit that, you feel the car slow down and then it starts to spin its wheels. Hopefully, the worst conditions have blown over and we can get down to business tomorrow. It's been such a long break that we just want to get out there and enjoy ourselves."
Red Bull:
Sebastian Vettel: "It's a shame when there's so much water, as we'd love to go out on track more, but you can't. It's a shame for fans around the track - it's quite windy and probably not so nice out on the grandstands. Hopefully they can come back tomorrow with dry clothes and we'll have some sunshine - that's the forecast anyway! You can't race in these conditions, as the tyres can't get rid of the water."
Mark Webber: "It's a shame because we love Spa and it would be nice to do some more laps, but in the end you can't really learn much in these conditions. We got some info from FP1, but you can't race when there's so much standing water on track and you probably wouldn't qualify in this, so in the end we just put the car to bed tonight and come back tomorrow."
Lotus F1:
Romain Grosjean: "It's a big shame we couldn't do much running today as it was so wet. I was really looking forward to trying the famous 'Device' for the first time, but I guess I'll have to wait. The weather should be better tomorrow, so we'll have a busy time getting two days of evaluation into one session and then going straight into qualifying. The E20 has been strong at every circuit so far this year, so I'm sure it will be pretty good around this track in any case."
Kimi Raikkonen: "There's not much to say about today. It was too wet to run and there was little point as the forecast is for better conditions over the next two days. I'm looking forward to driving the circuit in the dry. It's a shame that we haven't been able to evaluate our new developments as it would have been interesting to see how they perform here. Tomorrow is another day, let's see what happens."
Mercedes:
Nico Rosberg: "Although it was raining hard, we learned a little about the behaviour of the car today. We collected some data for the starts, balance and tyre temperatures as you can always learn something in the rain. The weather conditions were very special out there but it wasn't dangerous as long as you went slowly where the big puddles were. We expect it to be dry on Sunday so that's why we didn't risk going out too often today."
Michael Schumacher: "Coming to Spa this year is very special for me, especially with the honour of being awarded the honorary citizenship of Spa on Thursday, and I look forward to a stunning race weekend. Unfortunately the weather today did not allow us to do much more than just basic work as there was too much rain coming down in both sessions. There was a lot of aquaplaning, even when just cautiously cruising around the circuit which sometimes you did not see or expect at all, so proper driving was not possible. But we have a lot of basic data from Spa and we know what to expect. Tomorrow's practice will nevertheless be very important, especially as the weather is supposed to be much better. I look forward to going out on this beautiful track again tomorrow."
Related Links
Prac Two: A washout
Friday's gallery from Spa
