news: Mark Webber fastest at wet Spa-Francorchamps

Mark Webber has ended a rain interrupted opening day of practice for the Belgian Grand Prix on top of the time sheets.

The Australian set the fastest time of 1:50.32s just past the halfway point in the afternoon session before heavy rain hit the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Fernando Alonso was second fastest, 0.14s adrift of Webber, while Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa rounded out the top five.

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The morning’s session saw just 10 minutes of dry running completed before rain arrived, with Mercedes duo Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg leading the way having been the only two drivers to complete flying laps prior to the showers.

Trouble struck Renault’s Bruno Senna and Force India’s Paul di Resta in Practice 1, with both drivers crashing into the outside tyre barrier at the unnamed left-hander after Rivage. The pair escaped the incidents without injury and returned for the afternoon session.

See below for the session times

Practice 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap
1	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:54.355
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:54.829	0.474
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	2:02.740	8.385
4	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	2:03.752	9.397
5	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	2:04.301	9.946
6	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	2:04.663	10.308
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2:04.728	10.373
8	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	2:05.391	11.036
9	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	2:06.583	12.228
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	2:06.886	12.531
11	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2:07.055	12.700
12	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	2:07.481	13.126
13	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	2:08.233	13.878
14	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	2:08.239	13.884
15	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	2:08.918	14.563
16	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	2:09.792	15.437
17	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2:12.278	17.923
18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	2:12.389	18.034
19	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	2:12.772	18.417
20	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	2:13.058	18.703
21	Karun Chandhok	Lotus-Renault	2:13.090	18.735
22	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	2:13.601	19.246
23	Bruno Senna	Renault	2:14.340	19.985
24	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	2:14.933	20.578

Practice 2

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap
1	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:50.321
2	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:50.461	0.140
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:50.770	0.449
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:50.838	0.517
5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:51.218	0.897
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:51.242	0.921
7	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:51.655	1.334
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:51.725	1.404
9	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:51.751	1.430
10	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:51.790	1.469
11	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:51.922	1.601
12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:52.750	2.429
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:52.780	2.459
14	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	1:52.911	2.590
15	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:53.009	2.688
16	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:53.156	2.835
17	Bruno Senna	Renault	1:53.835	3.514
18	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:55.051	4.730
19	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:55.494	5.173
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:56.202	5.881
21	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:56.816	6.495
22	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:57.450	7.129
23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1:57.612	7.291
24	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	2:02.234	11.913