After the mid-season break the AT&T Williams F1 team would return to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix. The team had brought several new parts for the FW33 aiming to improve the cars performance. In the lead-up to the opening Friday practice the weather would be variable with sunshine followed by rain, but despite the cloudy conditions it was expected to be dry for the first session. Bruno Senna would be taking over from Nick Heidfeld at Renault for this race. A big test for the Brazilian. Pirelli
had brought their medium and soft compound tyres for this race as Kobayashi would be thr first driver to take to the track. There would be a rush of drivers coming out for their installation laps. Pastor Maldonado would be first out for Williams. Rubens would follow him out with only Hamilton yet to come out. Both Mercedes cars would complete their first timed laps with Schumacher setting a 1m:55.007 and Rosberg a 1m:57.926.

Hamilton was now out on the track as Schumacher set a 1m:54.355 and Rosberg a 1m:54.829. Massa and Hamilton were also out on the track while Sutil also come out. Hamilton would pit as Di Resta came out. Trulli was next out as Schumacher pitted followed by Rosberg. Massa was back in as drops of rain started to fall. Perez was also put on the track as the rain became heavier. Trulli would take to the grass returning to his pit. Rubens
Barrichello would get out of his car with the track now empty. With fifteen minutes of the session completed only two drivers had set times. It was raining heavily with reports having the rain falling intermittently over the next hour. There was now a lot of standing water on the track but despite this Vettel would take to the track running on the intermediates.

There was now fifty five minutes remaining in the session as Vettel pitted after one lap. Hamilton would be next out on what was still a very wet track. Hamilton would pit after one lap while Alguersuari was now on the track. Sutil would join him with the rain having stopped. Alguersuari would pit while Sutil was out on the full wet tyre. Sutil would start a timed lap as we would have Alonso also come out. Sutil would set a 2m:16.282 as more drivers started to come out, including Kobayashi, Buemi, and Senna. Alonso would pit while Sutil had set a 2m:14.236. Both Mercedes cars were on the track along with Jerez. A 2m:13.982 from Buemi as Sutil and Rosberg both pitted. Senna would set a 2m:17.310 to be fifth. Kobayashi had set a 2m:27.641. Schumacher had pitted while for Williams Rubens was getting ready to go out.

Alguersuari was third, 2m:12.502, as Massa came out on the intermediates. Buemi was fourth, 2m:13.206, from Sutil, Senna, Kobayashi, and Perez. Both Virgin cars were out on the track with just over thirty five minutes remaining. Rubens would come out on the intermediates, joined by Alonso. Alguersuari had improved with a 2m:11.314 to still be third. Glock and D'Ambrosio were ninth and tenth. Petrov, Ricciardo, and Di Resta were
also out on the track. Rubens would set a 2m:14.930 to be seventh. Both Mercedes cars were also back out as Senna would put his car into the barrier with the rear-end of the car going in first. It did a major amount of damage to the Renault. Sutil was fifth as Rubens pitted. Pastor had left the pits along with Webber. Petrov was now seventh, 2m:14.654, while Ricciardo was fourteenth, 2m:24.957.

Rubens was trying the new rear wing. Pastor would pit without setting a time while Webber would set a 2m:10.799 to be the fastest wet weather time. Both Williams drivers were carrying out setup work as well as testing the new aerodynamic parts. The track was now quite busy with Alonso and Vettel out on the track. Rubens was now twelfth but the times were not that meaningful given the wet track. Vettel was sixth with a time of 2m:11.541. Alonso was seventh from Buemi and Petrov. Vettel would improve to be fourth, 2m:10.258.
Webber was back in his pit with twenty minutes remaining. Pastor was back out on the track joined by Button. Rubens would also come back out as Button moved up to third, 2m:09.682. Webber and Vettel were fourth and fifth. Di Resta would spin off at Turn nine and was not able to continue. His car would hit the barrier on the right side. The session would be red flagged seeing Pastor fail to complete his timed lap as he was forced to return to his pit. The session would be restarted after the track was cleared seeing a rush of drivers coming out onto the track.

With their dry weather times Schumacher and Rosberg were still fastest as Massa moved up to third with a 2m:06.830. Rubens would also find time moving up to fourth with a 2m:06.906. But Hamilton and Sutil would move up to third and fourth seeing Rubens drop to sixth. Pastor was now in eighth, 2m:08.918. He would drop to ninth as we had Alonso and Buemi seventh and eighth. Alguersuari was now fifth, 2m:06.583. Not that there was
any real conclusions that can be drawn from the times as the session came to an end. Rubens would finish in eighth and Pastor fifteenth. So it was Schumacher fastest from Rosberg, Button, Vettel, Hamilton, Sutil, Massa, Rubens, Alguersuari, and Kobayashi. Rubens had set his best time on his last lap, 2m:05.391. The times ware all relative to the track conditions at the time they were set. At least for Williams they would be able to assess their new rear wing.

Pos  Driver          Team		   Time       Laps
 1.  M Schumacher    Mercedes              1m54.355s  13
 2.  N Rosberg       Mercedes              1m54.829s  15
 3.  J Button        McLaren-Mercedes      2m02.740s  8
 4.  S Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      2m03.752s  10
 5.  L Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      2m04.301s  7
 6.  A Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  2m04.663s  18
 7.  F Massa         Ferrari               2m04.728s  10
 8.  R Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth     2m05.391s  12
 9.  J Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m06.583s  16
10.  K Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        2m06.886s  15
11.  F Alonso        Ferrari               2m07.055s  12
12.  S Perez         Sauber-Ferrari        2m07.481s  15
13.  J Trulli        Lotus-Renault         2m08.233s  14
14.  S Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m08.239s  14
15.  P Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth     2m08.918s  10
16.  M Webber        Red Bull-Renault      2m09.792s  8
17.  T Glock         Virgin-Cosworth       2m12.278s  13
18.  T Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          2m12.389s  10
19.  J D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth       2m12.772s  13
20.  P di Resta      Force India-Mercedes  2m13.058s  8
21.  K Chandhok      Lotus-Renault         2m13.090s  11
22.  V Petrov        Renault               2m13.601s  10
23.  B Senna         Renault               2m14.340s  7
24.  D Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth          2m14.933s  11