Friday times: DC quickest, but Johnny surprises

Jacques Villeneuve completed the top four, with Spa meister Michael Schumacher 'languishing' in fifth after failing to improve on his first session time of 1m54.136s. Coulthard also failed to go faster in session two, but his 1m53.398s from the first hour of running was still 0.521s quicker than Hakkinen's best session two time.

Other surprises from the final session of the day included Alex Wurz pushing his Benetton up to sixth, two slots ahead of team mate Giancarlo Fisichella, and Jos Verstappen's Arrows splitting them with a late run to seventh.

But for sheer incredulity, Marc Gene took the biscuit. His Minardi came from nowhere to grab eighth, before slipping down to finish 11th overall - still several places ahead of its more usual position on the back row.

Two drivers with a lot of de-briefing ahead of them will be Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello and Jaguar's Eddie Irvine. The Brazilian finished the day a disappointed ninth, while the Ulsterman was 16th - 13 places and a staggering 1.700s off his F1-departing team mate Herbert.

Two further free sessions tomorrow morning (Saturday morning) are the last chance for the teams to hone set-ups before the single hour of qualifying at 1200 BST.

For full combined times from Friday's pair of free practice sessions click here.