1450: This is where we say goodbye for today. Thanks for the tweets and texts.
Sarah Holt will be your guide to tomorrow's action. She will be kicking things off ahead of final practice at 0930 BST. So long as her alarm clocks kicks in in time. Fingers crossed, eh?
1441: A rundown of the gaps behind Webber in that second session goes a little something like this: Alonso +.140, Button +.449, Hamilton +.517, Massa +897 and Rosberg +.921.
Second practice standings: 1. Mark Webber 2. Fernando Alonso 3. Jenson Button 4. Lewis Hamilton 5. Felipe Massa 6. Nico Rosberg 7. Serio Perez 8. Nico Hulkenberg 9. Paul di Resta 10. Sebastian Vettel
1432: The flag drops on the session with
Mark Webber fastest in the second pratice session for the Belgian Grand Prix.
1430: Mark Webber is up and out the car and that is him done and dusted for the day. He will finish top of the standings but team-mate Sebastian Vettel is still something of an unknown quantity. He posted his time on the hard tyres and might have fancied his chances of cracking that time on slicks.
1427: Nico Rosberg is also out and get a hosing down as he climbs into Eau Rouge. These are more data gathering missions from the teams rather than attempting to get one over anyone in the standings.
1422: A few of the bigger guns are venturing out. Mark Webber, his Red Bull sounding a little throaty to my ear, is tentatively putting in a gentle lap. It is 27 seconds off his best before the rain.
1420: Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Virgin's Timo Glock have got fidgety cooped up in the garage and have headed out onto the track. Neither are troubling the top of the standings and Glock gets a bit sideways going into one of the corners for his efforts.
Adam Bark on Twitter: "Celeb/F1dream team: Danny Bahar and Tony Fernandes in their own respective F1 cars. Ultimate showdown for the Lotus name."
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa: "Toro Rosso are expected to start giving Red Bull protege Jean-Eric Vergne some runs in first practice sessions at grands prix soon. The Belgian is currently second to Canadian Robert Wickens in the Renault World Series, which ends at Spain's Circuit de Catalunya next weekend, so he could even be introduced from the next race, the Italian Grand Prix. As is usual in these circumstances, race drivers Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi would alternate in making way for Vergne."
1411: The spectators are sheltering under some of the pine trees surrounding the circuit with the rain unrelenting. It doesn't look promising with 18 minutes left for any more action today. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are having a chin-wag in the McLaren garage.
Ferrari on Twitter: "It is likely that the position will remain unchanged until the end of the session. The rain is expected to last at least 20 more minutes...."
1401: There are suggestions that Adrian Sutil is being "a bit stroppy" after he has been replaced by reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg in this afternoon's session. Sutil tells BBC Sport: "We changed the session with Nico this morning. It is not good for the performance to not be in the car. It's a bit disappointing what the team does because it's not good for the successm but I had to sit out for the afternoon and will do my best tomorrow. It was the only dry session we had and I missed it. But [this morning] I felt good, the car was fast and as usual we can expect a good performance here."
1359: Mark Webber polishes up that field-leading time by posting a 1.50.321, before the heavens open and the drivers scamper back into the pits and shelter.
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: "Lewis Hamilton was in quite a downbeat mood when he spoke to the media on Thursday. Part of that can be put down to an illness he picked up after coming back from a break in the US with girlfriend Nicole Sherzinger. 'I was refreshed but caught a bug when I got back,' he said. 'Wasn't the greatest. Just recovering from it.' But he's also concerned that next season might turn into a repeat of 2011, with Red Bull stealing a march on the other teams, who will then be forced to play catch-up. 'It could still be that case for the next year or so that they dominate from early on and we have to catch them up,' he said. 'They have had from 2009 almost the same car. It has just evolved in that same design. It has just got better and better. We had a terrible car in 2009, we scrapped that car. We built a new car in 2010, we scrapped that car and built a new one in 2011. I think we will have a similar car to this year next year so it should be quicker. We can definitely at least halve the gap, and instead of it being half a season, it can be quarter of a season.'"
1351: Rosberg responds to take the lead with a time of 1.51.242 before Alonso goes top briefly with a 1.50.461 and Webber snipes back with a 1.50.430 as the lead is passed along like a hot potato.
1348: Vettel thunders through in a time of 1.51.794, which is good enough for the lead but by less than two-tenths of a second. Vettel was on medium tyres with the Mercedes on slicks though so there may be more of an advantage to the German champion in there than that stat suggests. With rain on its way, Red Bull send out Mark Webber for a quick run on the softs.
1343: Lewis Hamilton makes a fashionably late entrance to the session and immediately climbs up to second, splitting the Mercerdes of Rosberg in first and Schumacher in third.
1341: Michael Schumacher goes to the top of the standings, and improves on his effort from first practice, with a time of 1.52.102 and then is immediately trumped by team-mate Nico Rosberg who registers a 1.51.967. Impressive stuff from Mercedes so far.
1338: Fernando Alonso hacks a great big chunk out of Webber's time to go fastest with a time of 1.56.292. Hamilton and Schumacher are on the chase with the German going through the first sector quickest...
1332: Hang on. Sebastien Buemi is tipped off by his team radio that there is more rain on its way. It is fairly quiet on the track as most of the field head in to wait and see what is to come. Still out there though are Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg who are rewarded with the fastest two times of the session so far.
1328: A streaky and expanding dry line is now snaking it's way around the circuit. Michael Schumacher is following it at the moment and chalks up the second fastest time of the session.
1325: And now Jenson Button fills his boots with a lap time of 2.02.206. Behind him it is Alonso, Vettel, Buemi and Hulkenberg. I think those faint rays justify it, yep, I'm breaking out the sun graphic. Bask in that.
1322: At ease. The track appears to be drying up pretty sharpish, perhaps rendering that Vettel time less significant. Fernando Alonso posts a time of 2.03.953 to climb to the summit of the standings.
1320: Ominous. In pretty consistent conditions, Sebastian Vettel jumps to the top of the timings by almost two clear seconds with a time of 2.06.398, ahead of Jaime Alguersuari and Bruno Senna in second and third.
1316: Webber is progressively shaving small segments off his field-leading time. He is down to 2.08.351, as the Renaults of Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov fill in behind him.
German driver Nick Heidfeld, dropped for this race by Renault, tells BBC 5 live: "I cannot be very specific as something is pending. It's disappointing not to be here as a race driver but that is the situation at the moment and I have to live with that. If we would not be confident that we have a case here, we wouldn't follow it up and yes, I believe this is the situation. I have a good feeling inside the team. People like me. I've worked with the team for over a year and always enjoyed working with them."
1311: Fernando Alonso just behind Webber in the session's standings gets a face full of spray as he sweeps past one of the backmarkers. Still grotty conditions for the drivers out there.
1309: Mark Webber has clocked the fastest time so far. With a lap of 2:10.524, still a good 15 seconds short of Schumacher's time this morning.
1304: Michael Schumacher is out and about but taking it fairly easy as he feels his way through an opening lap and tests the conditions beneath that Mercedes.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz: "There was an interesting incident in first practice this morning when Sebastian Vettel was told on the radio by his engineer Guillaume Roquelin that he was pressing the button that activates his DRS overtaking aid 100m too early. DRS was not enabled at the time because of the wet track, so this can only mean Vettel was practising the right time to press the button out of Eau Rouge/Raidillon for when the time comes in the race. It's a little example of the attention to detail the world champion puts into his racing, as well as the intelligence that makes him such a formidable force."
1300: Jenson Button climbs into his McLaren and may be looking to get something on the board early after leaving it late to score the third fastest lap this morning. Paul di Resta is letting his Force India mechanics do their stuff on his car as he bides his time.
1257: The track looks pretty much dry in some parts, but then the camera pans round and it is still fairly soggy in other bits, complete with poncho-clad spectators. There will be a lot of staring at radar screens again in this session I think.
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: "It hasn't rained for an hour and Lotus technical director Mike Gascoyne says the predicted heavy rain has missed the circuit. So there are hopes for a dry session this afternoon."
BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard: "I went to Austin, Texas, in the summer break to do a publicity event for Red Bull and I was pleasantly surprised by the city that is scheduled to host the return of the US Grand Prix next season. It's a college town, there's loads going on, and they're music mad. There's a sign at the airport saying: 'Welcome to the music capital of the world.' And while Nashville and LA, among other places, would have something to say about that, they do their best to live up to it. There is music coming out of virtually every doorway, from country 'n' western to rock to punk, and on Friday evenings they close Sixth Street and turn it into a huge pedestrian area. There's a Montreal-type vibe to it. I think F1 will enjoy it there."
1241: What next? Justin Bieber in a Ferrari? Sally Bercow in a Toro Rosso? Brian Blessed in a Force India? Give us your celeb/team dream combos on
8111 on text and
#bbcF1 on Twitter
1238: For all the glitz atop Schumacher's bonce there has not been much in the way of stardust in the Spa grandstands so far. Fair enough I guess, a rainy Friday in the Ardennes is no match for race day in Monte Carlo for luring the celebs. But, hallelujah, here to save us all is
a video of Tom Cruise racing a Red Bull in a desert. BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: "There is an interesting development in the engineering set-up at Mercedes, where Michael Schumacher's engineering support has been bolstered on a temporary basis by Jock Clear. He will be the German's performance engineer until a full-time candidate for the role can be found . This is all part of a reshuffle that has seen Schumacher's race engineer Mark Slade take on a factory-based role and be replaced by Chris Bonnington. Those with long memories will recall that Clear was Jacques Villeneuve's engineer at Williams when the Canadian battled for the F1 title with Schumacher. Clear became close to Villeneuve and has made some choice remarks about Schumacher's ethics in the past. Still, needs must and all that..."
1233: Right, back to it. And here is a little nugget to get us going. Michael Schumacher,
who was fastest in today's first practice session, is sporting some natty new headwear for this grand prix. Gone is his predominately red helmet design for the weekend and instead he is sporting 21-carat gold plated effort to commemorate 20 years in Formula 1.
1230: Churning clouds hover over Spa, a few patches of blue in the mix, but it is still anyone's game up there. Second practice gets under way at 1300 BST.
1050: We will be back for second practice at 1230 BST. In the meantime, Andrew Benson's
report from first practice is fresh off the server for your delectation. See you in 100 of your British minutes.
1047: Right, that is your lot from first practice. Just a little nudge to UK users who have a television screen to hand, you can enjoy highlights from classic Grands Prix on the red button right now. You have just missed the Belgian Grand Prix of 1998, complete with a raging Michael Schumacher almost coming to blows with David Coulthard, but Brazil 2001 is next up. Go, go go.
First practice standings: 1. Michael Schumacher 2. Nico Rosberg 3. Jenson Button 4. Sebastain Vettel 5. Lewis Hamilton 6. Adrian Sutil 7. Felipe Massa 8. Ruben Barrichello 9. Jaime Alguersuari 10. Kamui Kobayashi
1034: Jenson Button and Sebastain Vettel sneak up to third and fourth respectively ahead of Hamilton with late laps on the drying track.
Michael Schumacher, on the 20th anniversary of his F1 debut, is quickest ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg after getting out in the brief dry spell at the start of the session.
1031: The rain starts to fall a little again. It has been very difficult to draw any conclusions from this session with the conditions undertyre so changeable.
1029: Hamilton immediately supplants Massa in third, just under 10 seconds off Schumacher, while Adrian Sutil wedges himself in fourth.
1028: Massa clocks the session's third fastest time behind Rosberg and 12 seconds adrift of Schumacher.
1027: Hamilton, along with Ferrari's Felipe Massa, is back out on track with a little under four minutes left on the clock. Michael Schumacher's time, set in the dry, is pretty much unassailable.
1027: Hamilton, along with Ferrari's Felipe Massa, is back out on track with a little under four minutes left on the clock. Michael Schumacher's time, set in the dry, is pretty much unassailable.
1025: Lewis Hamilton is still a notable absence from the timing sheets. He is sat in his McLaren however and may be tempted as racing restarts and a bit of a dry line starts to appear.
1018: Race director Charlie Whiting heads out to have a little look at turn nine. He may be passing his eye over that particular section to see if there is anything suspect in the profiling that has caught out both Senna and Di Resta.
1014: Force India Paul di Resta slides into the barriers at Turn Nine in an almost carbon copy of Bruno Senna's off earlier in the session. And the red flags are out! It may be that the hoist required to extract Senna's car from tyres is still making its way back from delivering to the Renault garage.
1014: Jenson Button emerges from the McLaren pit and the track is starting to look a little patchy as the sun starts to break through. A little bit of gesturing from Fernando Alonso as Sergio Perez whips past him.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Lee McKenzie: "Germany's two world champions, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, raced each other in karts on Wednesday at an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country's Kerpen circuit, where Schumacher and many of Europe's other F1 and motor sport stars turned a wheel for the first time. Schumacher started his career there and he told me how much the kart club means to him. Vettel's father Norbert pointed out to me where they used to park their trailer when Sebastian was a little boy dreaming of becoming an F1 driver. This weekend also marks the 20th anniversary of Schumacher's debut in F1, and you can watch an interview with him in our race-build-up show on Sunday."
1009: The McLaren pair of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, along with championship leader Sebatian Vettel, are still yet to post a time. The intermediate tyre is the tyre of choice as much of the rest of the field hit the tarmac and Senna completes his trip back to the Renault pitwall and gets a comforting arm from Eric Boullier. Nice.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz: "Down at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton has now put on an even steeper rear wing, perhaps to counteract the wobble he had out there. McLaren are going through all these wing configurations ready for qualifying tomorrow."
1003: Senna's Renault car is being winched up and off the track as Mark Webber speeds past, making his first outing of the weekend in his Red Bull.
1001: It hasn't gone well for Bruno Senna. The Brazilian is drumming his fists against the steering wheel after sliding, back end first, into the barrier at Turn Nine. That looks like a busy afternoon for the Renualt mechanics. Senna is trudging away from that 90-degree left-hander and back to some unhappy pits.
0953: Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso are prepping themselves in the Ferrari garage. Meanwhile Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi sets the fourth fastest time of the session.
Team Lotus on Twitter: "A few cars have braved the wet FP1 conditions so far. Happiest people in Spa? The photographers - some magic shots to come out of the spray."
0949: Bruno Senna, making his debut for Renault this weekend, takes his Lotus for a blast. Think it is still spitting out there.
Virgin Racing driver Jerome d'Ambrosio: "I really enjoy the track and I love that so many fans are here. If there's any pressure, it's only going to be positive for me. For the race, we know where are our pace is. We've already taken the decision to move our focus onto the 2012 car. The rest of the season is now all about learning and improving so I'll focus on that. The pace is what it is. I can't do much about it. All we can do is fight as much as we can and get the full potential out of what we have."
0946: Perhaps seeing Hamilton's scare, Force India's Adrian Sutil tries out the full wet-tyre set-up and pootles round 21 seconds behind Michael Schumacher's fastest time, set in the dry at the very start of this session. Sutil's time is still only the third posted this morning in challenging conditions.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz: "This is very interesting as the track condition is right on the edge between full wets and intermediates. The reason they are running inters is that it hasn't rained for four minutes and the sun is out - and that's what has pushed the guys towards the intermediates but Jenson Button doesn't fancy going out in the wet. He is still standing in the garage with his cup of tea."
0941: The rain has held off for few minutes and Lewis Hamilton also fancy a bash on intermediates. He has fright though as his McLaren starts floating as he heads into the high-speed Blanchimont corner. All safe, but he retreats back to the pits suitably chastened.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz: "The Red Bull is more Valencia specification than anything else. I don't know what the specification is on the rear suspension as they won't let me crawl under the car and have a look but I was talking to Mark Webber yesterday and he was saying they are happy with the car. Meanwhile, McLaren are wanting to use their super-powerful DRS system here."
0937: Sebastian Vettel is out on intermediate tyres and sending plumes of spray flying out the back of his Red Bull. His team radio warns him to take it easy with, in their words, "rivers" across the track and aquaplaning a lurking danger.
BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz: "Renault have had to make some changes to their car to prevent a repeat of the explosion that happened following the fire that affected Nick Heidfeld in the last race in Hungary. The air bottle exploded. It was made of carbon-fibre and had no heat protection, because it was not in a place where high temperatures were normally a problem. They have now made a new one out of titanium and added some heat shielding."
0931: Empty cockpits throughout the paddock as the drivers prowl about their garages. No sign of anyone making a break for it and giving the skiddy conditions a try. The hardy souls in the grandstand seem to be removing a couple of their waterproof layers which may be a good sign however.
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: "Scotland's Paul di Resta has never driven a grand prix car at Spa before, so Friday will be a voyage of discovery. In fact he has not driven here since his Formula Three days in 2005. But unsurprisingly, the man who is undoubtedly the top rookie of 2011 after such an impressive season so far, is looking forward to the challenge. 'When you come here naturally you feel quite close to Scotland because it rains a lot, there's a lot of green - green grass, green trees,' Di Resta said wryly. 'Spa is one of the special places on the calendar, like Silverstone. The high-speed nature of the track, low downforce, the famous Eau Rouge and the fans. You can just see how people get behind this place. There's naturally atmosphere here. When you walk the track, you see different parts of it, the contours of it, it's just incredible."
0925: Karun Chandhok, hoping to get an outing with Lotus in this session, pulls a gallic shoulder shrug as he shelters in the pits. Nico Rosberg offers a cheery wave to the camera.
BBC 5 live analyst Anthony Davidson: "Qualifying has been a good indicator of pace this season. Who was on pole position in the last race? Sebastian Vettel again, but he's had to pull it out the bag a lot of times this year. It's been very, very close in qualifying. Every now and then, you will turn up without the fastest car and that's the case for Red Bull but Vettel was the man to beat again in Hungary again."
0919: It is still piddling down and the weak sunshine in no danger of drying out the circuit. The McLaren mechanics take their cue and are unwrapping some new tyres for Hamilton and Button.
0915: The Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg sit at the top of the timing sheets with the session's only two posted times and they don't look like being challenged any time soon. The rest of the field sit in the garage and watch the weather and stare at radar screens as the rain continues to fall.
0913: Suddenly it is sheeting it down in parts of the track and Jarno Trulli is one of those caught out and attempting to tip-toe round on slicks. The Lotus driver is a little eager on the throttle however and ends up taking a detour on the lush green grass.
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: ""Unusually, Force India have both their race drivers in their cars for first practice this morning. But reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg, who normally replaces either Paul di Resta or Adrian Sutil in this season, is going to get a chance. He is down to drive in place of his German compatriot in this afternoon's second session. When heavy rain is expected."
0909: Talking of headwear, Schumacher has opted for a fresh helmet design, swapping from his trademark red-orange to a gold. It is inconveniently making him difficult to distinguish from team-mate Nico Rosberg.
0907: Michael Schumacher sets the fastest lap with a time of 1:55.007, while Felipe Massa has been on the Ferrari team radio having a difficult-to-decipher moan about a "too heavy helmet". Answers on a postcard - Anthony Davidson reckons it might be the Brazilian getting used to the g-force again.
0904: Kamui Kobayashi has two laps under his belt already while Michael Schumacher is the biggest name out on track and wriggling his way through Les Combes.
0900: A right old mixed bag of weather out in the Ardennes as we get under way. Brollies up in some part of the track, sun peeking through the clouds in others. With 7km of tarmac to cover it may be different conditions in different parts of the track.
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: "There will be a new face on the grid this weekend, following Renault's decision to replace Nick Heidfeld with their reserve driver Bruno Senna. The Brazilian is in for the next two races at least, but Heidfeld is taking legal action to try to get the drive back. There are also rumours that Renault's other reserve driver, GP2 championship leader Romain Grosjean, could also get a chance before the end of the year."
0853: A quick manual refresh should pin some lovely video to the top of the screens of UK users. BBC Red Button coverage begins in two minutes.
0852: So having had a bit of time off yourselves to reflect and ruminate, what are your predictions for how things will shake down as we parade down to Brazil? Get in touch via text on 81111 if you are a UK user, and fire in your missives from all round the world on Twitter via hashtag
#BBCF1. 0848: The German has warmed up for the resumption of hostilities by
revving round nearby Kerpen in a go-kart. Some might mischievously suggest he could replace Red Bull - "Kinky Kylie" - with that that vehicle and still romp home with plenty to spare. Not me. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile has marked his own efforts for the first half of the season as
"must do better". Let's see if he can.
0839: Almost four long weeks since
Jenson Button's win in Hungary and it will be interesting to see if that early-season Red Bull dominance is still creaking. An 85-point lead over his own team-mate at the top of the standings means there will have to be some pretty serious subsidence to deny Sebastian Vettel the world title.
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: "Good morning from a Spa-Francorchamps that is living up to its reputation for capricious weather. As thousands of fans streamed into this cathedral of speed this morning the Ardennes forest was bathed in lovely late-summer sunshine. But, as former F1 driver Marc Surer said: 'It's going to rain - it's just a question of when.'" And sure enough there was a brief downpour at 0905 local time. It's now stopped again. It's going to be one of those days."
0830: Morning all. Half-term is over. And we are straight back into the fray with one of the classic old-school examinations of Formula 1 - the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
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