GEARING UP: Red Bull Racing’s German driver Sebastian Vettel drives during the second practice session at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Spa ahead of the Belgium Formula One Grand Prix. (AFP)
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 stricken car back to the pits at slow speed with strips of right rear tyre buckling and flailing was more of a talking point.
Pirelli, who had to strengthen their tyres after a spate of blowouts at the British Grand Prix in June threw the sport into crisis, said Vettel had suffered a puncture and they were investigating what caused it.
Last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the last race before the summer break, was free of tyre-related incidents but the Hungaroring is one of the slowest circuits while Spa is the second fastest track with heavy loads on the tyres. Vettel had earlier lapped with a best time of one minute 49.331 seconds with the sun coming out after a damp start to the day in the Ardennes forests where the weather is notoriously capricious.
The championship leader’s time looked ominous, 0.059 quicker than second placed teammate Mark Webber and comfortably clear of Frenchman Romain Grosjean in the Lotus with a time of 1:50.149.
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 2014. Button, last year’s winner in Spa, was out of the top 10 in both. Vettel, who has a 38 point lead over Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, had been sixth fastest behind fellow-German Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes in the morning.
Grosjean a changed man on return to Spa
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium: Apart from becoming a father over the August holiday break, Romain Grosjean has returned to the Belgian Grand Prix as a changed man on the track as well.
The Lotus Formula One driver was dubbed a ‘first lap nutcase’ by Australian Mark Webber last year and was banned for a race after causing a first corner collision at Spa that could have caused serious injury to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
The forced retirement for Alonso proved crucial to the championship, with the Spaniard missing out on his third title at the end of the season by three points to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
Webber hurled the insult at Grosjean in Japan after another collision that destroyed his hopes of a podium finish but the Red Bull driver told reporters at Spa that he was sure the Frenchman was reformed now. “I think he’s changed. He had to, obviously... I think he’s done a better job this year - which wouldn’t be difficult, let’s be honest,” said the Australian, who is close to Alonso.
“It was a bit of a weird one with Jenson (Button) what he did on the top chicane in Budapest (last month), so every now and again you still see snapshots of some errors but I think he’s improved,” added Webber, the oldest and most outspoken driver on the grid, who is leaving F1 at the end of the year.
“But his move on (Ferrari’s Felipe) Massa was very, very good in Budapest.”
Grosjean finished sixth in Hungary, the last race before the European summer break, despite a drive-through penalty and a retrospective 20 second penalty for a clash with McLaren’s Button, and was third in Germany before that.
He was also third in Bahrain and has kept out of trouble at the starts.
“I think I have a different mind from the past,” he told reporters, making clear that the change had come long before the birth of his son.
“I think I’ve progressed a lot and worked on that and I think the 2013 starts prove that I did my duties. I’ll keep pushing and trying to do my best in every circumstance,” added the Frenchman.
“I’ll keep progressing, keep working and keep doing the same things and I’ll keep doing clean starts.”