Toyota’s Jarno Trulli took advantage of some early dry running to set the fastest time in a rain-hit first practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

In typical Spa fashion, the session began in hazy sunshine before rain began to fall in varying degrees of intensity from the half-hour mark onwards.

Trulli was one of the last on track before the rain arrived and posted a best lap of 1m49.675s, which remained unbeaten over the remaining hour.

Championship leader Jenson Button was second quickest for Brawn with a 1m50.283s, fractionally ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso on a 1m50.368s.

The order was largely irrelevant, however, since many drivers did not set representative times in the dry part of the session and those that did completed very few laps.


Belgian Grand Prix free practice session one times

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says he has made no decision about who will race alongside Kimi Raikkonen beyond next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Test driver Luca Badoer stood in for the injured Felipe Massa in Valencia but struggled to readjust to F1 competition after nearly a decade away and was a long way off the pace all weekend, qualifying and finishing at the back of the field.

Badoer said on Thursday that he would occupy Massa’s race seat until the Brazilian returned from his layoff – but following Sunday’s race Domenicali indicated that the 38-year-old will need to raise his game dramatically at Spa if he is to retain the seat.

“What I said exactly, to be precise, is that for us the first priority is to understand when Felipe Massa will come back,” Domenicali told reporters.

“For sure it is an important race for Luca Badoer next weekend.

“We are expecting a big jump from him and then we will see.”

Badoer was an embarrassing 2.6s slower than team-mate Raikkonen in qualifying at Valencia, but posted somewhat more competitive lap times during the race as he gained confidence in the car and spent a number of laps battling with Renault’s impressive debutant Romain Grosjean.

Domenicali saw a few signs of progress from Badoer, and was pleased with the Italian’s fitness after he finished the race with no problems and set his fastest lap time five laps from the end.

“As I’ve said before, Ferrari cannot be satisfied with a car in last position,” he said.

“That is pretty clear, but we need to consider all the circumstances and everything that has happened.

“I think if you look behind it, for sure it was a difficult weekend for him.

“But in terms of race pace today, if you look and compare to the young drivers, you can make your opinion.

“He did a great start and then he was touched from behind so he lost a place, and then in terms of rhythm – everyone was worried this morning about his health, worried that it was not possible for him to get to the finish and that he would have to go to the hospital. But in fact he was very good.

“Then we saw some parts of the race with the blue flags where it was difficult to keep the rhythm.

“At the exit of the first pit stop when there was the situation with Grosjean, it’s just not being used to racing.

“So I am expecting a big step next week.”

Badoer has asked people to be patient with him while he reacclimatises to F1, but promised to perform much better at Spa, a circuit he knows.

“Of course, what was important for him was to finish this weekend,” said Domenicali.

The FIA has revealed the fuel loads with which all 20 cars will start the European Grand Prix. We analyse the data here.

The car weights reveal that the fastest man in qualifying was Rubens Barrichello, who lapped just 0.065s slower than pole-winner Lewis Hamilton despite carrying an extra 9.5kg of fuel.

The effect of fuel on lap times at Valencia is 0.034s per kilo, so 9.5kg equates to a weight penalty of 0.323s, meaning that Barrichello was 0.26s quicker than Hamilton when fuel loads are taken into account.

Indeed Heikki Kovalainen just shades team-mate Hamilton with a 0.22s fuel-corrected deficit – but bear in mind that Lewis didn’t show his full hand as he aborted his second Q3 run after Heikki blew his final lap.

While McLaren has clearly made remarkable progress in turning the much-abused MP4-24 from a dog of a car into a winner, it needed to go light in order to beat Barrichello’s Brawn to pole.

Interestingly, however, both McLarens had more underlying speed than the other BGP 001 of Jenson Button, albeit by only a small margin.

Button admitted to making a mistake on his final Q3 flier, but the signs are that Barrichello has the edge over his championship-leading team-mate this weekend; in any event he did the better job in qualifying.

Sebastian Vettel was slightly flattered by a light fuel load and was a couple of tenths slower than Button on the adjusted times, with team-mate Mark Webber a further 0.1s adrift – confirming that Red Bull is slightly off the front-running pace on this stop-start circuit.

Williams once again looks very competitive, with Nico Rosberg qualifying seventh despite the heaviest car of anyone in the top 10 – putting him sixth in the fuel-adjusted order ahead of Webber and Kimi Raikkonen.

There is then a gap of almost 0.3s to Fernando Alonso, the ninth quickest driver, and a further quarter of a second back to BMW’s Robert Kubica, who is 1.1s off the fuel-corrected pole time.

The big strategic question that will potentially determine the outcome of the race is whether McLaren or Brawn has made the smarter decision on starting fuel loads.

McLaren’s aggressive strategy paid off in qualifying and may well have laid the foundations for another Hungary-style tour de force, particularly since it has locked out the front row and has the advantage of KERS at the start.

On the other hand, Barrichello can run three laps longer than Kovalainen and four laps longer than Hamilton, so if he stays tucked up behind the silver cars he will be well-placed to leapfrog them at the first pit stops.

Much depends on whether the top three stay close together through the opening stint, or whether one of the McLarens – most likely Hamilton – makes a break while the other holds Barrichello at bay.

Either way, it’s clear that McLaren has a great chance to win a second consecutive race while Barrichello has his best opportunity in several months to claim his first victory since 2004.

Button will be looking to move up on the first lap if at all possible so as not to lose touch with his team-mate and the McLarens.

Fortunately for him, Vettel has made a succession of slow starts in recent races – a trend the Red Bull driver must buck here if he is to stand a chance of trimming Button’s championship lead.

Rosberg may be one to watch, both at the start and during the first pit stop cycle, since he is scheduled to stop later than most of the cars around him, on lap 20.

Based on fuel mileage of 2.68kg per lap, our calculations indicate that Hamilton will kick off the first round of pit stops on lap 15, with Vettel pitting on either 15 or 16 and Kovalainen taking on service on lap 16.

Barrichello can go as far as lap 19, one lap longer than Button, so both Brawn drivers will be looking to pounce on rivals at the first stops.


Car weights including fuel (in kg, by grid order)

1.  HAMILTON      McLaren        653

2.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren        655

3.  BARRICHELLO   Brawn          662.5

4.  VETTEL        Red Bull       654

5.  BUTTON        Brawn          661.5

6.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari        661.5

7.  ROSBERG       Williams       665

8.  ALONSO        Renault        656.5

9.  WEBBER        Red Bull       664.5

10. KUBICA        BMW            657.5

11. HEIDFELD      BMW            677

12. SUTIL         Force India    672.5

13. GLOCK         Toyota         694.7

14. GROSJEAN      Renault        677.7

15. BUEMI         Toro Rosso     688.5

16. FISICHELLA    Force India    692.5

17. NAKAJIMA      Williams       702

18. TRULLI        Toyota         707.3

19. ALGUERSUARI   Toro Rosso     678.5

Luca Badoer, standing in at Ferrari for the injured Felipe Massa, had a very poor qualifying.

He was slowest of all in the first session, and the gap between Badoer and the next slowest car, Jaime Alguesuari's Toro Rosso, was bigger than the gap between fastest man Button and Alguesuari in 19th.

Kimi Raikkonen meanwhile improves from the Practice times to Qualify 6th for Tomorrows Race.

European GP starting grid

Ferrari suffer from 3 poor practice sessions which Kimi Raikkonen was Ferrari's fastest driver in all three sessions. New fill-in driver Luca Badoer is still getting use to the Ferrari F60 as in-season testing ban has affected his performances as he has not fully tested the F60 before this weekend.

Stay Tuned for qualifying at 1pm (BST)

Fernando Alonso will move from Renault to Ferrari next year and spark a cascade of other driver changes, according to McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

The double world champion's expected switch is an open secret in Formula 1, but Whitmarsh is the first senior figure publicly to acknowledge it.

"I think we all know that the Fernando-Ferrari move has a knock-on effect that ripples through the other teams," he said.

Ferrari said Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were already contracted for 2010.

"He (Whitmarsh) can say what he wants, there is no 'Fernando-Ferrari move'," said a spokesman for the Italian team.

"Things can happen and not happen. But you cannot talk about any Fernando-Ferrari move. We have two drivers with a contract until the end of 2010. We are not under pressure to change anything."

Alonso, who denied last month that he had signed a contract with Ferrari, has ducked questions about his future since arriving in Valencia for this weekend's European Grand Prix.

Whitmarsh's remarks were made in an interview with BBC Sport in which he addressed rumours that McLaren will replace Heikki Kovalainen with Nico Rosberg as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate next year.

"At the moment we have not and we are not in conversation with any other drivers and we will see in the future in reality there are some changes probably with Fernando and Ferrari and that frees up the driver market," he said.

"Every year there are a number of pivotal points during the season which determine what is going to happen in the drivers market this year I think we all know that the Fernando-Ferrari move has a knock on and that ripples through the other teams, clearly the BMW withdrawal also has also had an impact.

"So I think we don't see a need at the moment to rush into it. I think we are concentrating on developing the car and making sure we are more competitive and I think we will be this weekend.

"Heikki is pushing hard he is a driver who can drive the car very quickly - if you look at his fuel corrected qualifying times he has been massively competitive but he hasn't performed quite as well as he and we would like him to in the races."

Ferrari are reported to be planning to partner Alonso with Massa and are said to be in negotiations with Raikkonen's management to pay off a proportion of the Finn's 2010 contract and have him move to another team.

Brawn, Renault and Toyota have all been linked with the 29-year-old, who won the world championship in his first year with Ferrari in 2007.

But the injury suffered by Massa at the Hungarian Grand Prix last month has complicated matters.

He is recovering from the fractured skull and damaged eye he sustained after he was hit on the helmet by a spring that had become detached from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn, so there is some doubt about when and whether he will be able to make a return to F1.

In that context, Ferrari may wish to keep open the possibility of Raikkonen driving for the team in 2010 in the event that Massa fails to make a full recovery.

Massa, who is recuperating at home in Brazil, has targeted a return at his home Grand Prix on 18 October, and was visited last week by Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali.

But the Ferrari spokesman said it was too early to predict any comeback by Massa.

"We are all happy Felipe is getting better and better every day. But we are all - including Felipe - aware that we have to be patient.

"He is having another CT (brain) scan at the end of this month or the beginning of September and we will have a better picture after that.

"From the human point of view, he is already close to 100%. Then he has to complete a physical recovery process. Then he will have to start again his physical preparation because at the moment he cannot do anything (about improving his fitness).

"At the moment we are all happy he is recovering so quickly. We are pretty confident. For him and everyone it would be a dream if he could race in Brazil. But we know we have to face the reality and the reality is to take it step by step."

The driver market is wide open as F1 heads into its traditional 'silly season'.

European Grand Prix free practice session two
1.  ALONSO        Renault       1m39.404s
2.  BUTTON        Brawn         1m40.178s
3.  BARRICHELLO   Brawn         1m40.209s
4.  ROSBERG       Williams      1m40.385s
5.  NAKAJIMA      Williams      1m40.503s
6.  SUTIL         Force India   1m40.596s
7.  KUBICA        BMW           1m40.643s
8.  FISICHELLA    Force India   1m40.681s
9.  VETTEL        Red Bull      1m40.723s
10. KOVALAINEN    McLaren       1m40.738s
11. RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       1m40.739s
12. TRULLI        Toyota        1m40.770s
13. GROSJEAN      Renault       1m40.787s
14. WEBBER        Red Bull      1m40.956s
15. GLOCK         Toyota        1m40.985s
16. BUEMI         Toro Rosso    1m41.156s
17. HEIDFELD      BMW           1m41.350s
18. BADOER        Ferrari       1m42.017s
19. ALGUERSUARI   Toro Rosso    1m42.089s
20. HAMILTON      McLaren       1m43.214s

Luca Badoer faces an equally steeping learning curve this weekend as he steps into Felipe Massa’s car and reacclimatises to competitive F1 action while also learning the unfamiliar Valencia track and getting to grips with the KERS-equipped 2009 Ferrari.

The Italian got 25 laps under his belt this morning but finished slowest of the 20 runners, some 3.4s off the pace and 2.5s shy of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who was 10th quickest.

European GP free practice session one times

Luca Badoer has revealed he will continue to deputise for Felipe Massa at Ferrari until the Brazilian is fit enough to return to racing.

The 38-year-old test veteran appeared to have only been confirmed in the seat for Valencia initially after Ferrari turned to him after its number one choice Michael Schumacher had to end his comeback bid due to a lingering neck injury last week.

But speaking in Thursday's press conference at Valencia ahead of his Formula 1 race return after a 10-year absence, the Italian said while it was important for him to get in as much mileage as possible during practice, he was safe in the knowledge that he would have more than one race weekend in which to get up to speed.

"I have to drive a lot on Friday," he said.

"I have to get used to this kind of qualifying and I have to get used to being at a race again, so if I had only Valencia, only one chance, I would be very worried, and I would try to do everything, and maybe with a lot of pressure and maybe with a lot of mistakes.

"But that's not the case because until Felipe comes back, the car is mine, so I have some time in which to improve, to develop the situation."

Although Badoer immediately ramped up his training regime after the extent of Massa’s injuries became known following the Brazilian's nasty Hungary crash, he has only limited experience in the F60 car he will be driving this weekend after taking part in two days of promotional filming at Fiorano earlier this week where F1's rules restricted him to just 100km on each day.

But while the last of his 48 races in the sport came in the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix for Minardi, Badoer insists the fact he has completed some many race distances in testing over the intervening period means he is fully prepared for the demands of a race weekend.

He also believes his past F1 racing and long-time testing experiences means he is more equipped for the challenge than a rookie driver would be in the situation.

“My last race was 10 years ago more or less, but I did in these 10 years close to 150,000km with Formula 1 [cars],” he said.

“I am used to doing two races [distances] in one day, because at the tests we sometimes did two races in a day, so it is not that really I’m worried for this respect for this situation.

“I am used to doing races as before I did a lot of races. If you think for someone who has never done a race it might be a problem, but I know how it was in the past so I have an idea.

“I am in a better than someone who didn’t make any races.

“So at the end, and at the moment, I am very calm.”

Having waited 10 years to get the opportunity to race for his homeland’s iconic team, Badoer admits, that while focussing on his task this weekend, he is thrilled his boyhood dream is finally being realised.

“In a way I’m very excited because it is my dream to drive with Ferrari in Formula 1,” he said.

“For all of my life it is simply a dream, so now I have it and I am the most happy driver in the world.”

Indeed, in a comment that highlighted just how long he has spent on the sidelines, he admitted that he had the media to thank for a reminder of when the last time was that he sat on an F1 grid.

Luca Badoer will have an opportunity to familiarise himself with Ferrari’s current car ahead of his grand prix return in Valencia, after the team announced that he will drive the F60 in a promotional event at its Fiorano test track on Monday and Tuesday.

The 38-year-old Italian is set to return to F1 competition in Spain as a stand-in for the injured Felipe Massa, after a decade on the sidelines as Ferrari’s test driver.

With testing severely restricted this year, Badoer hasn’t had any meaningful seat time in the F60 – a very different car to its recent predecessors given the wholesale changes to the technical regulations.

Ferrari failed to persuade all of its rival teams to waive the in-season testing ban when Michael Schumacher – its first choice as Massa’s replacement – was preparing for a comeback before a lingering neck injury ruled him out.

But the sporting regulations permit “promotional or demonstration events carried out using tyres provided specifically for this purpose by the appointed supplier [Bridgestone]”, and Badoer will thus be able to get a feel for the F60 and potentially its KERS device.

A statement on Ferrari's website read: “While Felipe is recovering in Brazil, tomorrow the Scuderia will take up its work after a two-week break which had been agreed with the other teams.
“Over the next three days the team will concentrate on the preparations for the races in Spain and Belgium, which will be held on the last two weekends in August.
“[Alongside] Kimi Raikkonen, Luca Badoer will start into the races, debuting as an official Scuderia driver.
“Tomorrow and Tuesday Luca will be part of a video [shoot] for promotional purposes behind the wheel of the F60 at the Fiorano race track.”
When he competes in Valencia Badoer will be seeking to rid himself of one of F1’s more unenviable records – being the driver who has contested the most grands prix without scoring a point – and to stake his claim to continue as Massa’s understudy until the Brazilian is fit enough to race again.