“All-in-all, it was a day of questions, characterised by rather changeable track conditions,” the Italian mused. “We knew the weather here at Spa would play an important role, and today we had first-hand experience of that.

“From what we could understand of the day, taking into account the usual Friday unknowns, the Ferrari barometer is tending more towards good weather – our performance level seems competitive and we are managing to get both types of tyre to work well.

“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.”

“Kimi's off-track excursion meant we were unable to complete the full programme we had planned for him,” countered Maranello's technical director Luca Baldisserri. “His car was too damaged to be repaired within the time available.

“Even with the hiccoughs caused by the coming and going of the rain, for his part Felipe was able to complete what we planned for him, picking up some very useful information. Allowing for the fact that track conditions were difficult to understand during these three hours and that temperatures were decidedly on the low side, I think we can be competitive.”