Getting the lie of the land

The Formula One summer shutdown is officially over, and nothing demonstrates that the teams are back at work than the traditional pre-race weekend track walk.

Here we saw a crop of Renault team members tackling the long hike around Spa-Francorchamps. At just over seven kilometres, it's the longest circuit of the season - and the undulating nature of the circuit makes it pretty tiring if you're tacking it on foot.

The good news is that conditions are currently looking perfect for this weekend's race. While some storms are forecast for Saturday, and the climate around the Ardennes forest is always inclined to the unpredictable, there's no denying that's a glorious blue and cloud-free sky above Spa on Thursday morning!

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.