Romain Grosjean will be happy if this week’s weather forecast for Melbourne proves right.
Although Wednesday will be warm and sunny in the Victorian capital, the clouds will begin to gather on Thursday, when the F1 circus congregates in the nearby Albert Park paddock for media and scrutineering activities.

Then, when practice signals the official start of the 2012 season on Friday afternoon, rain and isolated thunderstorms are predicted.

And isolated showers are forecast for the qualifying and race days.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean has not tested his new E20 mount on a wet track, and the last time he saw rain from the cockpit of any F1 car was in Brazil 2009.

“It feels like a long time ago!” the Frenchman confirmed.

“I’m ready if the (Melbourne) track is more slippery, and I’ll try to make the best of it.

“I like racing in the wet, so maybe it will be a bit of an advantage for me,” added the reigning GP2 champion.

Sunday will be his eighth career grand prix, following 7 races with the Enstone based team – then known as Renault – in 2009.

The Renault cars did not immediately run in Friday afternoon practice while the team investigated the technical failures of the initial session at Sepang.
Team boss Eric Boullier confirmed at the Malaysian circuit that neither Nick Heidfeld or Vitaly Petrov would return to their R31s until the problem is understood and rectified.

“Best to be on the safe side,” the team said on its official Twitter.

Heidfeld had returned to the pits in the first session with a blocked wheel, before Petrov spun into the gravel after a catastrophic failure on his left corner.

It was initially believed the problem was related to brakes, but the later theory was that the fault was in the suspension upright.

Half-way into the second session, it is believed the problem has been found and the cars will return to the track shortly.

Meanwhile, Boullier confirmed that German Heidfeld sat out some pre-weekend events this week with a throat infection.

“It’s not serious,” he told Bernama news agency. “He wanted to rest and be ready for free practice.”

Jarno Trulli has reportedly signed a contract to remain with Lotus for the team’s second season in 2011.

On Friday afternoon in Singapore, just before a heavy rain downpour, the Malaysian owned team confirmed reports that it will be known as the historic Team Lotus next year, rather than Lotus Racing.

The move follows team boss Tony Fernandes’ purchase of the name from David Hunt, with the separate Group Lotus believed to have signalled its intention to no longer allow the team to use the Lotus Racing moniker under license.

Lotus did not also confirm reports that it will be powered by Renault engines next year, but it is expected that an announcement about the team’s drivers for 2011 is imminent.

Finland’s Turun Sanomat claims that while Heikki Kovalainen signed a contract at Monza two weeks ago, his Italian teammate Trulli may only have inked a deal this week in Singapore.

The pecking order is unclear after three hours of practice at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday.

After a mostly wet day of running, even though the Belgian track was drying in the afternoon session, Mercedes’ Norbert Haug was asked who he thought was looking quickest so far.

“Nobody knows exactly,” he told German Sky television.

He said the timesheets threw up a few clues, with Red Bull “stronger than they seem” and also Force India’s Adrian Sutil apparently in the running.

“Ferrari and McLaren will be good,” added Haug, confirming that Mercedes is running a modified F-duct system this weekend.

“I don’t think the pecking order has really changed.  I also don’t think we are making a great leap forward.

“We think the floor is working a little better, but we’ll learn more about that on Saturday,” added Mercedes’ competition boss.

Haug gave a clearer prediction about the weekend weather forecast.

“I suspect Saturday will be wet as well,” said the German, just as the GP2 race on Friday afternoon was stopped due to heavy rain.

Added Renault’s chief engineer Alan Permane: “It’s the same (forecast) for Sunday.”

Fernando Alonso was fastest in both of Friday’s practice sessions at Spa-Francorchamps.

But after emerging from his Red Bull with the 18th quickest time in the afternoon, championship leader Mark Webber warned observers not to read too much into the first day’s results.

Indeed, the track was wet for most of the running, and when the sun was shining at the end, the red flags were waving due to spectators climbing a perimeter fence.

But on a late dash on dry tyres, Alonso followed up his wet morning time with the best time of the day in the afternoon, causing HRT driver Karun Chandhok to describe Ferrari’s pace as “ominious” on BBC radio.

The Italian team has another blown diffuser development in Belgium this weekend.

“I think we have improved the car over the last three grands prix, which means we now have a very competitive package,” said Spaniard Alonso.

Sebastian Vettel’s sixth place was the fastest Red Bull time on Friday afternoon, but Alonso said on Thursday that the Austrian-owned team is still favourite.

“I don’t see how they would lose a one second advantage since Hungary, but this race and the next one at Monza requires special low downforce and it will be interesting to see who makes the best job of running this configuration,” he said.