The threat of rain loomed large over practice day in Spa-Francorchamps, as Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN returned to action in Belgium.

Both practice sessions started on a damp, drying track, but major downpours remained elusive as the team was able to complete its programme successfully. Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi had a productive session, with good mileage that allowed the engineers to tick all boxes on their to-do list for the day.

With the Friday action complete, focus now switches to tomorrow's qualifying session. Even though the Spa circuit offers good overtaking opportunities, the stakes remain high for Saturday's shootout. The team, both here and at the factory, will work to optimise the C41s ahead of tomorrow's session, with the confidence that a good result is within reach.

All, of course, with an eye to the skies: the local weather's unpredictability is the only predictable factor...

Kimi Raikkonen: "It was a better day than we thought: it looked like FP2 would be a wet session, but then it was dry and we could run. We made a step forward throughout the day but there's still work to be done. Let's see what weather we get in qualifying, how we can improve overnight and find out how well we do tomorrow. In mixed conditions, everything can happen."

Antonio Giovinazzi: "We had a smooth and positive day, a good way to come back from the summer break. I am happy with the work we did: we only did a few laps on high fuel, so we don't have a lot of data for Sunday, but we have tomorrow still - and we have to take the weather into account. We were expecting rain this afternoon, but we ran in the dry instead. We'll see what we get tomorrow: the target is to get to Q2 and see what we can do from there."

Check out our Friday gallery from Spa, here.