F1: Rain Renders P2 A Wash At Spa

Formula 1

F1: Rain Renders P2 A Wash At Spa

Rain was once again the big winner in Friday's second practice round in Belgium...

Jared Turner | Posted August 31, 2012 Francorchamps (BEL)

For the second time on Friday, rain ruled a Formula One practice at Spa-Francorchamps.

Only this time — in Free Practice Two — conditions were so treacherous that only 10 drivers posted timed laps, the fastest of them being rookie Charles Pic's time of 2:49:354 set in the final seconds of the 90-minute session.

In total, 18 of 24 drivers got on track but only Nico Hulkenberg, who ran five laps, toured the Belgian circuit more than four times.

Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean, Vitaly Petrov, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan opted to skip the session altogether.

In Friday's opening practice, everyone but Felipe Massa managed to post a timed lap, as Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber paced the session over Pastor Maldonado. But with rain all around the historic course, all times from P1 were also virtually meaningless.

Weather conditions are expected to be more favorable on Saturday in Belgium for final practice and qualifying.

Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix is the 12th of 20 events on the 2012 Formula One calendar, and the first event following the annual month-long August break.

Coming into the weekend, Fernando Alonso leads the drivers' standings by 40 points over Webber and 42 over Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton (-47) and Raikkonen (-48) complete the top five.

Alonso leads F1 in victories with three, while Webber and Hamilton, with two victories, are the season's only other repeat winners.

SPEED.com will carry live streaming of final Belgian GP practice at 5 a.m. ET Saturday.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.