By Nick Sparkes
September 14 2005

Panasonic Toyota Racing were expecting a wet weekend, the tradition Spa circuit has always opened its heavens at some stage during the weekend over the last couple of years. But today, nobody could have prepared themselves for the monsoon type conditions, which greeted the teams on Friday afternoon.

The first season started out wet, but dried towards the end. This didn’t stop Friday runner Ricardo Zonta pumping in the laps, his TF105 putting in 22 laps to finish a creditable fourth. Race drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher also featured in the top ten, with Jarno seventh and Ralf ninth. The conditions lead to many of the runners driving limited numbers of laps due to the tricky conditions, and at in the final minutes, Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of the day, to go fastest with McLaren’s Friday tester Alexander Wurz just behind him. Bridgestone struggled to show any of their wet weather form with Michael Schumacher only taking eighth.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	K. Raikkonen	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:48.206	5
2	A. Wurz	Team McLaren Mercedes	1:48.216	18
3	G. Fisichella	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	1:48.619	6
4	R. Zonta	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:49.445	22
5	M. Webber	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:49.692	4
6	J. Button	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:49.890	7
7	J. Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:50.542	9
8	M. Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:50.564	4
9	R. Schumacher	Panasonic Toyota Racing	1:50.820	8
10	V. Liuzzi	Red Bull Racing	1:50.951	17
11	T. Sato	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	1:51.003	7
12	R. Barrichello	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	1:51.177	5
13	J. Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	1:52.173	7
14	F. Massa	Sauber Petronas	1:52.236	9
15	N. Karthikeyan	Jordan Grand Prix	1:53.148	9
16	A. Pizzonia	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	1:53.535	4
17	C. Albers	Minardi F1 Team	1:53.807	9
18	N. Kiesa	Jordan Grand Prix	1:54.437	17
19	R. Doornbos	Minardi F1 Team	1:54.973	8
20	T. Monteiro	Jordan Grand Prix	1:55.174	7
21	E. Toccacelo	Minardi F1 Team	2:02.502	5
22	D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	no time	1
23	C. Klien	Red Bull Racing	no time	1
24	F. Alonso	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	no time	0
25	J. Montoya	Team McLaren Mercedes	no time	0

The second session was a complete washout. The heavens opened leaving a flooded track for the duration of the session, thus meaning hardly any running from all of the teams. Red Bull Racings Tonio Liuzzi ventured out on the socking Spa circuit, only to spin and hit the wall, evidence to all the teams that conditions were worse than anybody expected. Toyota remained in the garage throughout the session, finishing what was a very wet and miserable day.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1	V. Liuzzi	Red Bull Racing	no time	1
2	R. Doornbos	Minardi F1 Team	no time	1
3	F. Alonso	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	no time	1
4	M. Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	no time	0
5	R. Barrichello	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	no time	0
6	J. Button	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	no time	0
7	T. Sato	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	no time	0
8	G. Fisichella	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	no time	0
9	M. Webber	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	no time	0
10	A.Pizzonia	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	no time	0
11	K. Raikkonen	West McLaren Mercedes	no time	0
12	J. Montoya	West McLaren Mercedes	no time	0
13	J. Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	no time	0
14	F. Massa	Sauber Petronas	no time	0
15	D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	no time	0
16	C. Klien	Red Bull Racing	no time	0
17	J. Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	no time	0
18	R. Schumacher	Panasonic Toyota Racing	no time	0
19	T. Monteiro	Jordan Grand Prix	no time	0
20	N. Karthikeyan	Jordan Grand Prix	no time	0
21	C. Albers	Minardi F1 Team	no time	0
22	A. Wurz	West McLaren Mercedes	no time	0
23	R. Zonta	Panasonic Toyota Racing	no time	0
24	N. Kiesa	Jordan Grand Prix	no time	0
25	E. Toccacelo	Minardi F1 Team	no time	0

Times courtesy of toyota-f1.com