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i think the redbulls may not be as good as expected, i just feel although there car is such a great aerodynamic machine. SPA requires a good good engine.

my podium

Hamilton
Rosberg
Bottas

I think the rain will disrupt quali in their favour. I'm going for Hamilton
Bottas
Rosberg

interesting bbc article - hamilton vs rosberg

on bbc website with Scheckter and mansell

I'm going

Bottas
Hamilton
Massa

That Williams is just mighty in a straight line, i can see The Mercs being jumped in the first sector on the 1st lap.

Rosberg said he has learned some things from the Hungaroring.

I hope they include, before asking people to move over for you to go through, you have to demonstrate you are faster or be all over their gearbox. Also it would be good to learn how to overtake Torro Rossos

First practice at Spa under way at 09:00 BST

American rookie Alexander Rossi will make his Grand Prix race debut this weekend in Belgium after being drafted in as a late replacement for Max Chilton at Marussia.

The team said Chilton, who has raced for the Banbury-based squad since 2013, was being substituted "while contractual issues are resolved".

Rossi, 22, only joined Marussia as test and reserve driver last month having previously served in a similar role at Caterham, contesting four Friday practice sessions over the past three seasons.

"It goes without saying that I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to race in Formula One for the first time," Rossi said. "I cannot thank the Marussia F1 Team enough for the faith they are demonstrating in me.

"It's a very big moment for me and there's a lot to prepare in a short space of time, but on the other hand I have felt ready for this for quite a while now.

"It is also exciting to be given this opportunity at such a fantastic and historical circuit as Spa-Francorchamps. I can't wait to drive the MR03 from tomorrow and I hope to reward the team with a solid race weekend."

Team principal John Booth admitted the driver change had not been planned, and said the team is hoping to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

"Although it was not our intention to offer Alexander the possibility to race this season, in light of the circumstances we are pleased to be providing him with the opportunity to make his Grand Prix debut at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Franchorchamps," Booth said.

"Naturally we hope to resume normal service with respect to our established race driver line-up as soon as possible, but for now we wish Alexander well for the weekend ahead and we look forward to seeing him in action."

Rossi will be the first American to compete in F1 racing since Scott Speed made his final appearance for Toro Rosso in Germany in 2007. He will also be the second debutant at Spa this weekend, following Caterham's decision to replace Kamui Kobayashi with three-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer.

Pirelli are bringing the soft and medium compounds this weekend

Andrew Benson (BBC)

"Judging by Thursday's news conferences, the four-week summer break may not have done that much to heal any tensions between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton admitted he had talked the issue of the team orders in Hungary through with bosses Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe but on the subject of his relationship with Rosberg said: '[The air] is clear for me. Not sure on the other side. But if there is any unclear air, it will be cleared before the weekend starts, that's for sure.'

"Rosberg refused to go into details on the issue and simply said he had 'learned various things from that race which I will try to adapt for the future'. He added: 'I gathered that there was a bit of a mess in the media and so it wouldn't be useful for me to give another extra bit to that at the moment, it's better to let it all calm down.' To which a mischievous Felipe Massa said: 'You fight after the race? With…?'"

Into the final 30 minutes of this session with Nico Rosberg fastest, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen.

No major drama for any of the cars out on the circuit so far today.

First practice results
1) Rosberg, 2) Hamilton 3) Alonso 4) Button 5) Raikkonen 6) Perez 7) Magnussen 8) Hulkenberg 9) Riccirado 10) Bottas

11) Vettel 12) Kvyat 13) Grosjean 14) Sutil 15) Massa 16) Vergne 17) Van der Garde 18) Maldonado 19) Bianchi 20) Rossi 21) Lotterer 22) Ericsson

First Practice
Spa-Francorchamps, Friday 22 August 2014

Driver Car Team Fastest Lap
1 Nico Rosberg 6 Mercedes 1:51.577
2 Lewis Hamilton 44 Mercedes 1:51.674
3 Fernando Alonso 14 Ferrari 1:51.805
4 Jenson Button 22 McLaren 1:52.404
5 Kimi Raikkonen 7 Ferrari 1:52.818
6 Sergio Perez 11 Force India 1:52.903
7 Kevin Magnussen 20 McLaren 1:52.922
8 Nico Hulkenberg 27 Force India 1:52.937
9 Daniel Ricciardo 3 Red Bull 1:52.972
10 Valtteri Bottas 77 Williams 1:53.172
11 Sebastian Vettel 1 Red Bull 1:53.369
12 Daniil Kvyat 26 Toro Rosso 1:53.594
13 Romain Grosjean 8 Lotus 1:53.597
14 Adrian Sutil 99 Sauber 1:53.703
15 Felipe Massa 19 Williams 1:53.968
16 Jean-Eric Vergne 25 Toro Rosso 1:54.189
17 Giedo van der Garde 36 Sauber 1:54.335
18 Pastor Maldonado 13 Lotus 1:55.336
19 Jules Bianchi 17 Marussia 1:55.782
20 Alexander Rossi 42 Marussia 1:57.232
21 Andre Lotterer 45 Caterham 1:57.886
22 Marcus Ericsson 9 Caterham 1:57.977

Nice to see Maldonado has been practicing over the summer break, look at the positives of that (quite frankly weird accident), at least he didn't take anyone out!

You can always rely on Crashtor

Lewis Hamilton, still the pacesetter with 1:49:189, is told over team radio that he is "half a tenth faster" than team-mate Nico Rosberg on his last lap.

That came after Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff gave some interesting insight into the team's thinking after Hamilton's failure to follow team orders in Hungary.

Wolff says the situation "needed a little bit of mediating, management, caressing, hard words", adding: "You cannot expect it to run super-smoothly. You don't expect when your team-mate has one more stop to do that you make his life difficult. On the other hand you cannot ruin one's race by expecting him to lose a couple of hundred metres. It was a matter of the words used not the principle.

"We probably shouldn't have said to Nico that Lewis was going to let him through, we should have said he won't make your life difficult."

Second practice results
1) Hamilton 2) Rosberg 3) Alonso 4) Massa 5) Button 6) Bottas 7) Kvyat 8) Ricciardo 9) Magnussen 10) Hulkenberg

11) Vergne 12) Sutil 13) Perez 14) Grosjean 15) Raikkonen 16) Bianchi 17) Gutierrez 18) Chilton 19) Ericsson 20) Lotterer 21) Maldonado

Vettel did not run in second practice

Second Practice
Spa-Francorchamps, Friday 22 August 2014

Driver Car Team Fastest Lap
1 Lewis Hamilton 44 Mercedes 1:49.189
2 Nico Rosberg 6 Mercedes 1:49.793
3 Fernando Alonso 14 Ferrari 1:49.930
4 Felipe Massa 19 Williams 1:50.327
5 Jenson Button 22 McLaren 1:50.659
6 Valtteri Bottas 77 Williams 1:50.677
7 Daniil Kvyat 26 Toro Rosso 1:50.725
8 Daniel Ricciardo 3 Red Bull 1:50.977
9 Kevin Magnussen 20 McLaren 1:51.074
10 Nico Hulkenberg 27 Force India 1:51.077
11 Jean-Eric Vergne 25 Toro Rosso 1:51.383
12 Adrian Sutil 99 Sauber 1:51.450
13 Sergio Perez 11 Force India 1:51.573
14 Romain Grosjean 8 Lotus 1:52.196
15 Kimi Raikkonen 7 Ferrari 1:52.234
16 Jules Bianchi 17 Marussia 1:52.776
17 Esteban Gutierrez 21 Sauber 1:53.955
18 Max Chilton 4 Marussia 1:54.040
19 Marcus Ericsson 9 Caterham 1:54.050
20 Andre Lotterer 45 Caterham 1:54.093
21 Pastor Maldonado 13 Lotus No time
22 Sebastian Vettel 1 Red Bull No time

Rosberg p1 in 2nd practice session

Nope, P2

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Legend

They say he has no personality indeed. When I tell people that these guys see all they say about them and clam up when they are interviewed, they say how can they read all this stuff.

This interview confirms it

comment by ManUtdDaredevil (U9612)
posted 5 minutes ago
They say he has no personality indeed. When I tell people that these guys see all they say about them and clam up when they are interviewed, they say how can they read all this stuff.

This interview confirms it
----------------------------------------------------------------------

we have heard it all before from hamilton manx --- how hard done by he is , how he is such a fighter how he likes senna blah blah -
------- he is just not that original , interesting or humorous to actually listen to --
--------- probably a nice bloke but just boring and uninteresting to listen to ---