Kimi Raikkonen is hoping the rain holds off for final practice on Saturday morning after a crash in Friday afternoon’s session at Spa-Francorchamps cost him valuable track time.

Raikkonen lost control of his F2008 after brushing a damp white line at the downhill turn nine and damaged the car sufficiently to rule him out of the final half an hour of running, when the track was at its driest.

As a result he admits he is slightly on the back foot and needs a dry Saturday morning session to fine-tune his car’s set-up before qualifying and the race.

“When I went off the track at turn nine, I clipped the kerb and the surface was a bit slippery there because of the rain,” said Raikkonen, who had been second quickest to team-mate Felipe Massa in the morning.

“I ended up spinning and then hitting the barrier.

“Unfortunately, not only did the rear wing break, but the floor was also damaged and it could not be repaired in time.


“A shame, as already earlier, when I had gone onto new tyres, it had begun raining and I lost a bit of time.

“Let’s hope tomorrow morning there’s no rain so that I can run more consistently in the dry.

“In the morning, apart from a few little electrical problems, the car wasn’t bad.

“Tomorrow we will see what we can do and obviously the weather will be a key factor.”

Raikkonen, who last won at Barcelona in April, needs a victory on Sunday to get his faltering title challenge back on track and ensure that he doesn’t have to play a supporting role to Massa for the rest of the season.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali doesn’t believe the Finn’s Friday error will prove costly, however.

“It was a shame Kimi had an ‘off’ which lost him some track time, but I don’t think this will prove to be a handicap for the rest of the weekend,” he said.

The on-form Massa got his Spa weekend off to a successful start, clocking the day’s fastest time overall and finishing second to Fernando Alonso in the damp afternoon session.

“It was an unusual day because of the changing weather,” said the Brazilian.

“Overall, I am happy with the work we did over the three hours. The car is working well and responds positively to the set up changes we have made.

“We tried various solutions and now we must study the data to draw the right conclusions.

“The tyres worked as we had expected them to: the softer ones seem to offer more performance.

“I think we are moving in the right direction.”