Spa grid grooves worry Vettel

Drivers and engineers were surprised on Thursday when they inspected the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Diagonal grooves have been cut into the asphalt covering the entire upper half of the starting grid, from first to twelfth places.

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport said championship leader Sebastian Vettel is worried the grooves might disadvantage those who qualify best for the Belgian grand prix.

"There is probably a disadvantage for the start, because you will have less tyre on the track," said the German.

Correspondent Michael Schmidt asked F1 race director Charlie Whiting for an explanation.

"In this area we needed better drainage for when it rains," he said.

"We have good experience with this method from Brazil," added Whiting.

He said he is not concerned that the upper half of the grid will face grip problems on Sunday afternoon.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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