Belgian GP Free Practice 1: Kobayashi in front in the rain

Best time for Kamui Kobayashi in the first free practice session of the Belgian F1 GP at Spa-Francorchamps. The Japanese Sauber driver preceded Pastor Maldonado (Williams) and Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso).

Heavy rain prevented the teams from running for the first 50 minutes of the session. The drivers initially limited themselves to a few installation laps with the extreme wet tyres.

Then the two Toro Rossos of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo took the lead ahead of Perez, Maldonado, Bottas, Glock, Petrov and de la Rosa. With half an hour to go Kobayashi set the provisional best time in 2.12.015, overtaken shortly afterwards by Ricciardo in 2.12.004, then beaten by Maldonado in 2.11.941.

20 minutes from the end Kobayashi returned to the lead with 2.11.389 while Vergne and Button were the authors of an off-piste. Schumacher then reported vibrations to the left front of his Mercedes via radio and returned to the pits.

Still many errors: Webber came wide in Les Combes, imitated shortly afterwards by Maldonado. Rosberg moved up to seventh place while Bottas and Vettel moved in behind him.

Lewis Hamilton also took to the track in the final minutes. The Englishman finished the tests with the 15th fastest time. At the end Massa was stopped on the track due to engine problems.

Fernando Alonso only covered 4 laps, finishing in the 22nd fastest time.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2m11.389s 20 2. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 2m11.941s + 0.552s 14 3. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2m12.004s + 0.615s 12 4. Jean- Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2m12.824s + 1.435s 15 5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 2m13.191s + 1.802s 13 6. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 2m13.861s + 2.472s 16 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2m14.210s + 2.821s 14 8. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 2m14.660s + 3.271s 16 9. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2m14.860s + 3.471s 12 10. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 2m15.402s + 4.013s 13 11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2m15.812s + 4.423s 11 12. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 2m16.409s + 5.020s 16 13. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 2m16.786s + 5.397s 10 14. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 2m16.788s + 5.399s 16 15. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 2m16.827s + 5.438s 5 16. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2m16.861s + 5.472s 8 17. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 2m17.519s + 6.130s 14 18. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 2m18.199s + 6.810s 10 19. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 2m19.546s + 8.157s 12 20. Dani Clos HRT-Cosworth 2m19.689s + 8.300s 12 21. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2m38.701s + 27.312s 9 22. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2m40.749s + 29.360s 4 23. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 2m46.580s + 35.191s 9 24. Felipe Massa Ferrari 2