By Adam Leveridge

After formula one visited two circuits where overtaking is relatively impossible, Spa Francorchamps will be welcome relief for frustrated drivers.

Spa was, and still is, regarded as the best circuit in the world by teams, drivers and fans alike.

At 4.3 miles in length, Spa is the longest circuit on the calendar.

It offers a raft of overtaking opportunities and combines some of the most spectacular corners in the world, such as the infamous Eau Rouge, and the incredible Pouhon and Blanchimont corners, which are taken at full-throttle at over 190mph.

The weather also generates a bit of excitement and unpredictability, as Spa has its own micro-climate, which means it can be heaving with rain at the far end of the circuit, while the teams in the pit-lane and paddock are being bathed in sunshine.

This can make for exciting racing, but it can also caused chaos for teams and a two-stop strategy is usually the order of the day, as this adds some flexibility to a driver’s strategy should a cloudburst suddenly form overhead.

As you can imagine, the changeable weather conditions mean that the average temperatures are usually relatively low.
During Friday practice, the ambient temperature was 18 degrees Celsius – a stark contrast to what the teams experienced in Valencia last weekend.

Brawn expected to be quick in the heat of the European grand prix. They hoped the warmer conditions would solve their problems with generating tyre temperature in cooler conditions; an issue they have suffered with at the last four grands prix.

Rubens Barrichello took the race win in Valencia, but the Brackley-based team didn’t seem to be able to take full advantage of the scorching temperatures, with championship leader Jenson Button continuing his poor run of form and scoring just two points for a disappointing seventh place.

Luckily for Button, the Red Bull pairing fared no better, with Sebastien Vettel retiring from the race with an engine blowout and Mark Webber finishing in eighth.

Despite some poor finishes, Button’s lead in the standings has not diminished and he still has an 18 point advantage over his closest challenger Barrichello, who leapt into second place ahead of the two Red Bulls when he took his victory last time out.

After the European grand prix, Button said that Brawn were confident they knew how to solve their tyre heating issues and that it would be sorted out this weekend in Belgium.

Because the morning practice session on Friday at Spa was disrupted by persistent rain, it was unclear who had the pace and who was struggling.

In the afternoon, the rain had eased off but, at the end of the 90 minute session, neither Barrichello nor Button were in the top ten and they seemed to be losing all of their time in the crucial middle sector of the lap.

Brawn have made no secret of the fact that they aren’t feeling confident about their chances at Spa and I don’t think either of the white cars will be in contention for the outright win on Sunday.

Their championship contenders on the other hand appear to bestrong.

The buzz word around the Red Bull camp this weekend is ‘quality’ rather than quantity, with the Milton Keynes-based squad concentrating on finding the right setup on Sebastien Vettel’s, car with as little running as possible.

This is because the young German, having blown two engines in Valencia, is running with an old power-plant this weekend in order to minimise the risk of exceeding his yearly allocation, for which he would receive a ten-place grip drop for each additional engine he uses.

Despite getting no timed laps in on Friday morning and then rationing his laps in the afternoon, Vettel performed well.

Webber was also quick and regularly appeared at the top of the timesheets throughout second practice.

The Aussie completed a lot of laps on Friday as he had the responsibility of comparing both tyre compounds and running low-downforce setups for both drivers because of Vettel’s engine situation.

It is absolutely essential for Webber to perform well in Belgium and, after he finished outside of the points in Valencia, he really needs to win at Spa in order to keep his championship fight alive.

The Red Bulls have a good track record in wet conditions, so the unpredictability of Spa shouldn’t hamper the Aussie, as long as the team get their strategy right.

The problem for Webber is that there is likely to be other obstacles in the form of McLaren and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, in his way.

Raikkonen has a great track record at Spa, winning three of the last four races in the Ardennes forest and Lewis Hamilton’s strong showing on Friday indicates that he is going to be quick in the race.

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