Hamilton on top after wet practice

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS: Title contender Lewis Hamilton prepared for his 200th Formula One race with the fastest time in Belgian Grand Prix practice yesterday, before rain brought an early end to the day’s action.

The Mercedes driver, who can equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 pole positions in today’s qualifying, lapped the longest track on the calendar with a best time of 1:44.753.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who had been fastest in the morning session with a time of 1:45.502 on ultra-soft tyres while Hamilton stayed on softs, was second on the timesheets with an afternoon best 0.262 slower than the Briton.

Hamilton also used the ultra-softs to set his best time before the rain set in with 20 minutes remaining.

Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton’s team-mate, made it two Finns in the top three while Red Bull’s Dutch teenager Max Verstappen kept his travelling orange army of fans happy with fourth in both sessions.

Verstappen was fastest in last year’s Friday practice, and went on to put his Red Bull on the front row, but the new cars are significantly faster and Hamilton was more then three seconds quicker.

Ferrari’s world championship leader Sebastian Vettel was third and fifth, just 0.01 slower than Verstappen, respectively, in Friday’s sessions.

The first session was halted after 15 minutes when Brazilian Felipe Massa crashed heavily into the tyre barrier at turn seven out of Les Combes.

He was taken to the medical centre for checks, before returning to the pitlane, with his team beginning the long job of rebuilding the car.

Fernando Alonso suffered an early lack of power in his McLaren, but still ended up 13th fastest. The Spaniard was 11th after lunch.

His Belgian team mate Stoffel Vandoorne, was 10th and 14th. – Reuters