Bruno Senna has resurfaced at Lotus Renault GP.
The Brazilian, whose late uncle Ayrton is the subject of a new award-winning documentary, had a difficult debut in 2010 with the struggling HRT team.

He has not been retained for 2011, instead resurfacing in the Valencia pitlane on Monday morning as Renault launched its new black and gold R31 car.

“It’s a great leap of faith from them to give me this shot, so I’m very happy,” 27-year-old Senna, who like Frenchman Romain Grosjean was introduced as a ‘third’ driver, said whilst wearing his new black overalls.

Among Renault’s other non-race drivers for 2011 are reserves Fairuz Fauzy, Jan Charouz and Ho-Ping Tung.

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.”