Pre-race practice for the Belgian Grand Prix was wiped out on Friday when heavy rain limited running and caused havoc at the forested Ardennes circuit.
Teams chose to stay in the garages for most of the day rather than venture out on track after blue skies and sunshine on Thursday turned to overcast clouds and rain overnight.
Kimi Raikkonen led the way in a wet first session but no driver set a time in the second, which was temporarily stopped just five minutes in after Red Bull Racing driver Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed heavily at Les Combes.
Continued heavy rain for the rest of the hour then left all the drivers except championship leader Fernando Alonso deciding to stay in the garages rather than take to the track.
The persistent fans remained in the grandstands but Alonso only managed an exploratory lap and then returned to the pits. The session ended, unremarkably, with a chequered flag waved to an empty track.
The notorious Spa-Francorchamps circuit is a dangerous place in wet weather and the unpleasant conditions are expected to continue throughout the weekend.
The only incident in the afternoon came when Liuzzi’s car swerved left under braking and spun 180 degrees before hitting one set of barriers, continuing to spin across the gravel and coming to rest at a second set of barriers.
The session was stopped immediately as Liuzzi’s stricken machine was craned away. When the green light came on again nine minutes later, the only man to venture out was Alonso.
Raikkonen had finished the first session fastest with a late lap time of 1:48,206, which put him just one-100th of a second ahead of test driver Alex Wurz, with Giancarlo Fisichella third. — Sapa-AFP