Vettel fastest despite puncture

Pirelli launch an investigation after yet another tyre incident

S PA- FRANCORCHAMPS: Pirelli’s Formula One tyres came under renewed scrutiny yesterday after triple world champion Sebastian Vettel suffered a blowout in second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver was fastest in the session, but the sight of him nursing his

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso set the largely unrepresentative pace in the opening session with a lap of 1:55.198 as Formula One drivers shrugged off the long August break and got back up to speed.

The Spaniard, third in the championship after 10 of 19 races, was ahead of the two Force Indias of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil with the top three setting their best times in the final half hour of an incident-free session.

The afternoon was more lively, with Dutchman Giedo van der Garde losing control and crashing his Caterham into the barriers at Stavelot.

The McLarens of Briton Jenson Button and Mexican Sergio Perez showed signs of progress, despite the team backing away from earlier assertions that they could challenge for a victory this weekend.

Perez was fourth fastest in the morning and eighth in the afternooon, when the team tried out some developments for next year. Button, last year’s winner in Spa, was out of the top 10 in both.

Vettel, who has a 38-point lead over Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen, had been sixth-fastest behind fellow-German Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes in the morning.

Raikkonen, who cried off sick on from media engagements on Thursday after weeks of speculation about his future and talk of moves to Red Bull or Ferrari, was sixth in the afternoon.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, winner in Hungary and increasingly looking like Vettel’s biggest rival after three poles in succession, had a quiet day and was 15th and 12th respectively for Mercedes.

Heikki Kovalainen was 16th quickest. – Reuters

GETTY IMAGES WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE: Sebastian Vettel of Germany shortly before he suffered a puncture and had to limp back to the pits during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, yesterday.