Spa-Francorchamps, 5th September

First and second for Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen respectively in the first free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix and then second and fifth in the rain affected afternoon. The conditions in the second session were really treacherous, with light rain turning the track into an ice rink in places, with occasional rivulets of water and the very slippery white-painted kerbs catching out a few drivers. Unfortunately, this included Kimi, who lost some track time as he knocked off the rear wing and damaged the floor on his F2008 when he spun at Turn 9.

Massa's morning lap was the quickest of the day in the dry and both Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers were generally happy with their performance level. Double world champion Fernando Alonso was fastest this afternoon for Renault, (although Felipe's morning time was quickest of all) while following Felipe were the McLaren-Mercedes duo of Heikki Kovalainen and series leader, Lewis Hamilton. Following Kimi in sixth spot was the Williams-Toyota of Nico Rosberg.

With today's difficult conditions, everyone will be hoping for a dry morning session tomorrow, to fine tune the cars prior to the afternoon qualifying session, when according to some forecasts - and none of them seem to predict the same thing for this part of the world - the track could again be wet.