[Mark]

Alonso quickest as Raikkonen crashes

Renault's Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in a rain-affected second free practice at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps while world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari crashed out.

Originally Posted by eurosport.yahoo.com

The Finn's team-mate Felipe Massa was second only 0.050 behind the Spaniard, while McLaren duo Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth.

Raikkonen lost the Ferrari going into turn nine and rear-ended it into the barriers, smashing off the rear wing. He was able to drive away and back to the garage, but his session was over.

Soon after Giancarlo Fisichella ploughed through a spillage of fluids from the damaged Ferrari and also spun out. He was forced to abandon his Force India while the red flag came out to enable stewards to clear up the mess.

At the start of the afternoon Hamilton had led the way with a 1:48.805, which topped the lists until late thanks to light showers that effectively stopped proceedings on track for 30 minutes of the hour-and-a-half session.

Shortly after the weather struck Australian Mark Webber crashed his Red Bull into the tyre wall at Bruxelles, leaving it to be towed away.

His team-mate Briton David Coulthard then had a wobble but maintained control and led the exodus back to the garages.

Barely two minutes after the rain had stopped and drivers re-emerged en masse, Raikkonen made a mess of his entry into the unnamed corner and brought it to a halt once again.

Nelson Piquet Jr replicated the out-of-form driver's accident after the restart and also dislodged the rear wing of his Renault.

With three minutes remaining the track had dried enough for his colleague Alonso to tear around in 1:48.454, somewhat slower than morning practice, followed closely by Massa and Kovalainen.

Hamilton could not improve and stayed fourth ahead of Raikkonen, with Nico Rosberg in the Williams jumping from 13th to sixth at the death.



Free Practice 1



Felipe Massa led a Ferrari one-two in the morning session.

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, behind Kimi Raikkonen, was over half-a-second off Massa's morning pace. The Briton struggled with steering throughout the hour-and-a-half session.

Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was fourth.

Fernando Alonso, set to decide his future with Renault soon, was fifth quickest ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber, whose final flying lap jumped him up the order. Following the Australian were Toro Rosso duo Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel.

BMW-Sauber had a session to forget, with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld down in 11th and 12th respectively.

Raikkonen, who led the timing lists briefly, was three-hundredths of a second behind his in-form colleague. Massa was in P1 for the majority of the session, improving his time twice late on after switching to soft tyres to remain well clear.

WIth 25 minutes left Hamilton lost control of his car at Les Combes and skidded across the grass, back on to the tarmac and into the gravel on the far side. He also improved late on, but remained 0.25s behind the Finnish world champion.

There were spots of rain in the final half-hour but they did not develop into a shower.

Bourdais will be especially pleased with his showing, although he has previously tested an F1 car at Spa so was not entirely new to the experience.

There were several casualties at the turn 11 Bus Stop, ahead of the start/finish straight: Nelson Piquet Jr of Renault and Honda's Jenson Button among them.

Button and team-mate Rubens Barrichello were slowest in the field, while Jarno Trulli also experienced problems with the Toyota - the car spent most of the session in the garage with an electrical problem. He eventually finished in 14th place.



FP1: Times

FP2: Times

Kimi's Light Crash: