Alonso fastest in wet Spa practice

Alonso's initial benchmark time of 2m01.223s, set halfway through the 90-minute session, allowed him to eclipse title rivals Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull).

Shortly after setting his time, Alonso then reported on the radio that the rain from Stavelot up to Blanchimont had become much worse, and pitted. Within minutes the track was saturated by an ocean of rain and everybody else followed suit.

Several drivers emerged from the pits in the last 10 minutes of the session, as the biblical weather instantly replaced itself with blue skies and puffy clouds, but the track was so saturated that improvements looked unlikely, as Felipe Massa proved by running wide at Pouhon.

But Alonso was having none of that and went faster still by lapping the majestic Belgian circuit in 2m00.797s fastest - as if just to make a point.

Hamilton did not go out again, but his lap was good enough to keep him second fastest.

The rain did not stop the F-duct equipped Robert Kubica from improving either as the Renault man jumped to third in the final minutes.

Vettel was fourth, ahead of Adrian Sutil, who is always good in these conditions. The German was fifth fastest for Force India having battled for the top spot early on with Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari, who slipped down the order to 16th.

Jenson Button was not one of those drivers who went out, and thus dropped to sixth for McLaren. The world champion was followed by Hungaroring winner Mark Webber (Red Bull), Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Rubens Barrichello, who left it late to set a time for Williams. Mercedes' Micheal Schumacher completed the top 10.

Despite the weather, no one delivered their car back to the pits broken - though there were predictably several offs, notably for Schumacher, Heikki Kovalainen and Massa.

Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               2m00.797s            17
 2.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      2m01.567s  + 0.770s  7
 3.  Robert Kubica       Renault               2m02.081s  + 1.284s  14
 4.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      2m02.450s  + 1.653s  11
 5.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  2m02.646s  + 1.849s  14
 6.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      2m02.913s  + 2.116s  6
 7.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      2m02.926s  + 2.129s  11
 8.  Kamui Kobayashi     BMW Sauber-Ferrari    2m03.401s  + 2.604s  17
 9.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     2m03.424s  + 2.627s  7
10.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              2m03.489s  + 2.692s  9
11.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               2m03.601s  + 2.804s  17
12.  Nico Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     2m03.649s  + 2.852s  17
13.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              2m03.654s  + 2.857s  6
14.  Pedro de la Rosa    BMW Sauber-Ferrari    2m03.851s  + 3.054s  17
15.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Force India-Mercedes  2m04.145s  + 3.348s  12
16.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m04.250s  + 3.453s  16
17.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               2m04.690s  + 3.893s  15
18.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m05.680s  + 4.883s  6
19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       2m05.697s  + 4.900s  18
20.  Lucas di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth       2m06.695s  + 5.898s  14
21.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth        2m07.189s  + 6.392s  15
22.  Bruno Senna         HRT-Cosworth          2m07.737s  + 6.940s  13
23.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        2m07.955s  + 7.158s  15
24.  Sakon Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth          2m10.507s  + 9.710s  18

All timing unofficial