With a myriad of rookies lining up at Zolder, the tricky conditions did manage to catch out those not familiar with driving the Renault machines on a wet track and as a result those who starred in pre-season testing were unable to make a push for glory.
Among these drivers included Brits James Rossiter, Robbier Kerr and Ben Hanley, although the fourth driver to line up on the grid hailing from the United Kingdom, Steven Kane, who competes for the 2005 championship winning Epsilon Euskadi team, goes to Monaco in sixth place.
Other drivers yet to make an impression on the championship include pre-season pace setters Mikhail Aleshin, Andy Soucek, Colin Fleming, Sean McIntosh, Davide Valsecchi and Alavro Parente, with all five drivers falling foul of the difficult conditions in Belgium at some point to trail Salignon’s 30 points.
After a flurry of driver changes throughout the 2005 season, the first seat alteration of the year has occurred at Comtec, the Norfolk-based team dropping inexperienced Brit Edwin Jowsey, to make way for Jaap Van Lagen, the Belgian having finished 2005 in ninth place and even scored a season-best result of second place in Monaco of all places.
With the eyes of the
Formula One team bosses set to be trained on their cars, this is the ideal opportunity for the drivers to impress the people who matter in their bid to follow in the footsteps of
Robert Kubica,
Heikki Kovalainen and Tiago Monteiro.
Still, at worst the team bosses are almost certain to enjoy what promises to be yet another exciting race.
![Eric Salignon - Interwetten.com [pic credit: Renault Sport media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/214472.jpg)
