Alonso Fastest in Practice 4

Alonso, who leads closest rival Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren, by 27 points with four races to go, finished with a time of 1:46.207 to put himself 0.334 seconds ahead of the Finn as their teams made final preparations before qualifying.

Sun shone down on the Ardennes forests in a stark contrast to the miserable weather on Friday that left drivers sitting in their garages for the opening practice sessions.

And after leaving it late to come out on track in the first session the teams put in plenty of laps in the second run as they perfected their set-ups for the afternoon qualifying session.

Jarno Trulli was third fastest for Toyota, 0.374 seconds down, in the second session with Montoya fourth in the second McLaren and Giancarlo Fisichella fifth for Renault.

Ralf Schumacher was sixth in the second Toyota, Jenson Button finished seventh in the fastest BAR-Honda, leading home eighth-placed teammate Takuma Sato to finish a promising session for the British team.

The Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello completed the top ten runners but Schumacher made a mistake midway through the session and went off at the bus stop chicane and Red Bull driver Christian Klien also went off.

Raikkonen finished fastest in the first 45-minute session on a time of 1:48.125 that put him 0.391 seconds ahead of teammate Juan Pablo Montoya as McLaren secured a confident one-two.

Pos  Driver         Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:46.307               14
 2.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:46.641  +    0.334   11
 3.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:46.681  +    0.374   15
 4.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:46.858  +    0.551    8
 5.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:47.049  +    0.742   16
 6.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:47.054  +    0.747   16
 7.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:47.419  +    1.112   14
 8.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:47.507  +    1.200   15
 9.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:47.773  +    1.466   12
10.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:47.991  +    1.684   14
11.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:48.092  +    1.785   13
12.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:48.204  +    1.897   15
13.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:48.213  +    1.906   11
14.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:48.551  +    2.244   16
15.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:48.866  +    2.559   12
16.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:48.877  +    2.570   11
17.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:49.166  +    2.859   12
18.  Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:49.208  +    2.901   15
19.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:50.740  +    4.433   13
20.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:51.594  +    5.287   14

All timing unofficial