Belgium – Free Practice 2: Charles Pic at the lottery!

The rain is still present as the green light flashes at the end of the pit lane, to the point where in some places, rivers run across the track. The weather is typically autumnal: 11°C in the air, and barely 12°C on the track. These conditions, just as bad as in the morning and accompanied by strong winds, mean that no one is in a hurry to go out. There is little chance of seeing the Medium and Hard tires offered by Pirelli this weekend.

It is also likely that Felipe Massa, having had to stop his F2012 at the very end of this morning’s session due to what seems to be an engine failure, will not participate in this session, as the engine change is underway in the Ferrari garage. For their part, the regular drivers who did not occupy their seats this morning, Bruno Senna at Williams and Narain Karthikeyan at HRT, will resume their places this afternoon.

Unfortunately, the session is not very lively. Midway through, no one has yet dared to cross the end of the pit lane. The first to venture onto the track after 48 minutes of waiting is Nico Rosberg. The German, at the wheel of his Mercedes fitted with rain tires, predictably dives into the pit lane at the end of his first lap before returning to the track. He is followed by Michael Schumacher and Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn being caught off guard by the amount of water on the track at Les Combes, without any damage. Ultimately, none of them recorded a timed lap.

Hamilton, Hülkenberg, Vettel, and Button are the next to hit the track, with 20 minutes remaining before the checkered flag. But the conditions remain just as dreadful. Jenson Button’s onboard camera shows the full difficulty of the exercise: in addition to visibility issues, puddles and streams make any strong acceleration risky.

Felipe Massa finally takes part in the session, his Ferrari, coated with flow-visualizing fluid, being repaired. Like his colleagues, the Brazilian only performs installation laps, going through the pit lane to carry out starting tests.

The rest of the grid, apart from Mark Webber, the Lotuses, Vitaly Petrov, and the HRTs, came out in the last minutes of the session to participate in the practice starts conducted on the grid. Finally, for the first time since the same Belgian Grand Prix in 2005, no one set any time before the checkered flag.

However, since practice starts are allowed after the end of the session, drivers wishing to participate must cross the checkered flag on the track before taking part. Consequently, the session’s standings, initially determined by the order of drivers entering the track, are decided in a single lap. And in this little game of chance, it’s Charles Pic, with a leisurely pace of 2:49.354, who sets the best time! He outpaces Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso. A nice nod for a session that was otherwise quite dull.

Results of Free Practice 2 of the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix: