28 August,2009 04:13 PM IST | | AFP
Italian Jarno Trulli took advantage of a heavy rainstorm to top the times for Toyota in Friday morning's first free practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Taking full advantage of a brief dry spell early in a mostly wet session, the 35-year-old driver made the most of his experience at the demanding circuit with a best lap of one minute and 49.675 seconds.
On a day of typically capricious weather conditions in the Belgian Ardennes, this time was enough to lift Trulli six-tenths of a second clear of world championship leader Jenson Button of Britain, in a Brawn GP.
| Jarno Trulli |
Button was slightly faster than Spain's two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Renault, who was third-quickest ahead of Swiss Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso and another rookie, Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari, his team-mate.
Button's Brawn teammate, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, the winner of last weekend's European Grand Prix at Valencia, was sixth ahead of Finn Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari and his compatriot Heikki Kovalainen in the leading McLaren.
Pole Robert Kubica was ninth for BMW Sauber and veteran test driver Italian Luca Badoer, 38, 10th for Ferrari, a week after his difficult weekend in Spain as deputy for injured Brazilian Felipe Massa.
Britain's defending world champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren did not go out and clock a time. Nor did title-chasing German tyro Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, who took the opportunity to preserve his limited engine supply. Vettel's team-mate, Australian Mark Webber, was caught out by the wet and wound up 17th fastest.
Only the top ten drivers managed to record a lap in the drier conditions, which meant that the session provided little information about performance on the classic track.
The rain began to fall heavily only 20 minutes into the 90 minutes session and the conditions caught several drivers out, Badoer sliding side wide several times and Kovalainen leaving the circuit at Rivage, but without damage.
Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix is the 12th race in the 17-leg Formula One world championship in which Button (72) currently holds an 18-point lead over Barrichello (54).
