Rate it!

35 votes

BMW's Nick Heidfeld recorded the fastest time in the final practice session for the Belgium GP at Spa-Francorchamps.

The 60-minute practice was declared a wet session and it took over half an hour for the circuit to dry sufficiently to allow dry tyre running.

As the circuit continued to dry the lap times tumbled culminating in Heidfeld setting the pace for BMW Sauber.

In such rapidly improving conditions, it was a case of being on track at the right time and on the right tyre and Heidfeld got it spot on as he posted a 1:47.876s lap, the third fastest of the weekend to date.

The times do not mean a great deal in this session given the conditions, but Heikki Kovalainen set the second fastest time for McLaren Mercedes with team-mate and championship leader fourth fastest behind former team-mate and rival Fernando Alonso in the leading Renault.

Felipe Massa set the Friday pace but today did not seem so comfortable with his F2008, despite posting his best laps right at the end of the session.

Ferrari, perhaps mindful that Massa is on his second Grand Prix weekend with the Ferrari V8 engine, kept the Brazilian pit-bound until less than ten minutes of the session remained.

Massa would go on to set the fifth best time ahead of the similarly powered Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Nico Rosberg was eighth fastest in the leading Williams Toyota with Kazuki Nakajima back in 16th position while Nelson Piquet and Mark Webber rounded out the top ten for Renault and Red Bull Renault.

Jarno Trulli set the 11th best time in the leading Toyota but it was team-mate Timo Glock, 15th, who was the driver to switch from the intermediate Bridgestone tyre to the dry rubber mid-session.

David Coulthard, the struggling Robert Kubica and Sebastien Bourdais split the Toyota duo.

The usual suspects brought up the bottom of the timesheets with Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil 17th and 18th for Force India Ferrari while it was another awful session for Honda with Rubens Barrichello slowest and Jenson Button unable to even complete a lap before his RA108 failed.

Free Practice 2

Renault's Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in a rain-affected second free practice while world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari crashed out.

The Finn's team-mate Felipe Massa was second only 0.050 behind the Spaniard, while McLaren duo Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth.

Raikkonen lost the Ferrari going into turn nine and rear-ended it into the barriers, smashing off the rear wing. He was able to drive away and back to the garage, but his session was over.

Soon after Giancarlo Fisichella ploughed through a spillage of fluids from the damaged Ferrari and also spun out. He was forced to abandon his Force India while the red flag came out to enable stewards to clear up the mess.

At the start of the afternoon Hamilton had led the way with a 1:48.805, which topped the lists until late thanks to light showers that effectively stopped proceedings on track for 30 minutes of the hour-and-a-half session.

Shortly after the weather struck Australian Mark Webber crashed his Red Bull into the tyre wall at Bruxelles, leaving it to be towed away.

His team-mate Briton David Coulthard then had a wobble but maintained control and led the exodus back to the garages.

Barely two minutes after the rain had stopped and drivers re-emerged en masse, Raikkonen made a mess of his entry into the unnamed corner and brought it to a halt once again.

Nelson Piquet Jr replicated the out-of-form driver's accident after the restart and also dislodged the rear wing of his Renault.

With three minutes remaining the track had dried enough for his colleague Alonso to tear around in 1:48.454, somewhat slower than morning practice, followed closely by Massa and Kovalainen.

Hamilton could not improve and stayed fourth ahead of Raikkonen, with Nico Rosberg in the Williams jumping from 13th to sixth at the death.

Free Practice 1

Felipe Massa led a Ferrari one-two in the morning session.

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, behind Kimi Raikkonen, was over half-a-second off Massa's morning pace. The Briton struggled with steering throughout the hour-and-a-half session.

Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was fourth.

Fernando Alonso, set to decide his future with Renault soon, was fifth quickest ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber, whose final flying lap jumped him up the order. Following the Australian were Toro Rosso duo Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel.

BMW-Sauber had a session to forget, with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld down in 11th and 12th respectively.

Raikkonen, who led the timing lists briefly, was three-hundredths of a second behind his in-form colleague. Massa was in P1 for the majority of the session, improving his time twice late on after switching to soft tyres to remain well clear.

WIth 25 minutes left Hamilton lost control of his car at Les Combes and skidded across the grass, back on to the tarmac and into the gravel on the far side. He also improved late on, but remained 0.25s behind the Finnish world champion.

There were spots of rain in the final half-hour but they did not develop into a shower.

Bourdais will be especially pleased with his showing, although he has previously tested an F1 car at Spa so was not entirely new to the experience.

There were several casualties at the turn 11 Bus Stop, ahead of the start/finish straight: Nelson Piquet Jr of Renault and Honda's Jenson Button among them.

Button and team-mate Rubens Barrichello were slowest in the field, while Jarno Trulli also experienced problems with the Toyota - the car spent most of the session in the garage with an electrical problem. He eventually finished in 14th place.

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport