Hamilton on pole, Vettel 2nd, Force Indias 3rd and 4th
Ferrari fastest in Q1 & Q2
McLarens and Sainz out in Q1, Saubers out in Q2
BBC Radio 5 live sports extra
Listen along to Jack Nicholls, Jennie Gow and Jolyon Palmer, our brilliant commentary team over on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra right now. You can also just press the play button at the top to listen along as well.
We are under way. Just the hour. So get out there quickly, get some good laps in while you can before those mean and moody clouds burst.
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer
There’s no mistaking which race track this is today. It rained overnight and was chilly this morning as the teams began to filter into the track - about 10C. It’s warmed up a little but it’s not expected to get much above 14C for the rest of the day.
And the threat of rain remains. Wet or dry, either rainy and/or cool conditions, the pendulum may swing in favour of Mercedes in their tight battle with Ferrari.
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White mediums, yellow softs and red supersofts are our options this weekend.
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Who are the winners and losers of the driver transfer market?
The Formula 1 summer break is meant to be quiet, meant to be dull. But not this year. We had...
So we have one vacancy at Toro Rosso, maybe one at Williams as well.
Your task today is to try to make sense out of all of that. What do you make of it all? Who are the winners and losers of this driver transfer market chaos and why?
Tweet us using the hashtag #bbcf1 and get involved.
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Spa
Ferrari pipped Mercedes on Friday, Kimi Raikkonen ending the day with fastest time, 0.15secs quicker than Lewis Hamilton. The world champion’s lap was not the tidiest, but it’s difficult to draw any conclusions, especially as Sebastian Vettel was 0.8secs off his team-mate.
On race form, though, Ferrari had a clear advantage. Not so much on the super-softs, where Vettel and Hamilton were evenly matched and Valtteri Bottas had the edge, but on the mediums, on which Vettel was 0.4secs up on the Finn and 0.8secs ahead of Hamilton on average. Mercedes technical director James Allison reflected the team’s anxiety about this. Describing it as “a curate’s egg of a day”, he said:
“The area where we need to do more work is that the long runs were poor and scrappy affairs with both drivers. A mixture of traffic and flat-spotting meant that we didn't establish the rhythm that gives you a warm feeling going into Sunday. So it was not a bad day, but it could have been better and we will do our traditional job of tucking-in overnight to see what we can improve to make sure that the cars have got a good combination of single lap pace and long-run speed.”
Image source, Getty ImagesSome kind of miracle? That is just desperate, desperate quotes from Vandoorne already.
His season started quite brightly with three points finishes in the opening four races, but he has not got himself into the top 10 since then. In three of those eight races he has not even finished.
A good race for him would go down very well in front of his home fans.
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Spa
McLaren are braced for a difficult weekend. Fernando Alonso was only 16th fastest, a shocking 2.8 seconds off the pace.
The Spaniard said the team needed to “find a couple of 10ths to be in the (midfield) fight, but added: “The target remains being in the points and for that we know how important is qualifying.”
Team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was last after a series of problems through both practice sessions, and he was downbeat at the end of the day. He said the team were “very, very far away”, and added: “We need some kind of a miracle to extract a good result.”
Image source, Getty ImagesKayleigh: Welcome back Michael! Can we have a good day for Vandoorne please?!
Hi Kayleigh! A good day for Vandoorne and McLaren would be very welcome indeed. Sadly our man Andrew Benson thinks it will be another tricky few days for them...
This was how they sat at the end of that second session. Sadly, once again this season, I have to write the words "a tough day for McLaren" and a "tough day for Williams".
Just when will they have a good day?
Image source, .
Image source, ReutersFerrari's Kimi Raikkonen pipped Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen set a lap of 1min 43.355 seconds,beating Hamilton by 0.168secson their qualifying simulation runs.
The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was third, 0.448secs away, while Hamilton's title rival Sebastian Vettel had a scrappy session and was fifth.
Vettel made errors on his fastest laps and was beaten by Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
However, Mercedes and Ferrari appear to be very closely matched - not just from the qualifying pace but also from the drivers' performance when they ran on race fuel loads later in the session.
Image source, Getty ImagesSebastian Vettel set the fastest time in first practice at the Belgian Grand Prix as the Formula 1 season restarted after its summer break.
The Ferrari driverheaded Red Bull's Max Verstappenand championship leader Lewis Hamilton, whose Mercedes was 0.318 seconds off Vettel's pace.
Hamiltonleads Vettel by 24 pointswith nine races left.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was fifth, will start from the back because of engine penalties.
Let's start off with a quick look back at what you may have missed yesterday...
Hello. Welcome along. Michael Emons here to guide you through the third practice session and then qualifying later on.
We will have radio commentary later on and as always we want you to get involved and have your say.
The past two races have been won by Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes but Ferrari have come out fighting after the summer break.
Two sessions yesterday, Sebastian Vettel was quickest in session one and Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in session two.
Can they build on their day one dominance and then lock out the front row in qualifying later on today? Let's find out.
Image source, Getty Images