Despite heavy rain during Friday’s practice session for the 2012 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, and a little bit more of the wet stuff during qualifying yesterday, things are expected to stay mostly dry for the today’s race. The current weather forecast for the area surrounding the Spa Francorchamps circuit is mostly cloudy skies, a peak temperature of 72 degrees F (22 degrees C), and only a very slight chance of rain.

Nevertheless, with four out of every 10 grands prix at Spa in recent years having been fielded in the wet, we wouldn’t be surprised if things took a turn for the worse. Part of the difficulty for teams’ strategists is the fact that the Spa track is so long (4.35 miles) that it can sometimes be raining at one end of the track and dry at the other.

As for tire management, Pirelli will be bringing its hard and medium compounds which were last used months ago at the Malaysian Grand Prix.  

Out of the past 10 Grands Prix at Spa, seven have been won from the front row, so pole-sitter Jenson Button of McLaren has a good chance of gaining some much-needed points. Current points leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari isn’t too far behind, however. Though he starts at sixth on the grid, the Spaniard has shown on numerous occasions to be adept at moving up the grid in rapid pace during the early laps.

Going into today’s race, Fernando Alonso leads the points table in the Drivers’ Championship with 164 points, followed by Mark Webber on 124 points and his teammate Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top three with 122 points.

For the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull Racing has a commanding lead of 246 points versus the 193 points of McLaren and 192 points of Lotus.

Should the weather hold out, the 2012 Belgium Grand Prix promises to be a great race.