Mark Webber sets the pace in final practice at Spa-Francorchamps

The Red Bull driver set a 2m08.988s lap time to top the list ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso. Jenson Button was fourth, Sebastian Vettel fifth and Sebastien Buemi in the sister Toro Rosso sixth.

No change in the weather then at Spa on Saturday morning, as in fact track conditions were perhaps worse than at any point when the Formula 1 cars have been running on it this weekend.

Jerome D'Ambrosio initially led a trail of 14 pioneers out on to the waterlogged asphalt and, very sensibly, immediately led them all back in again.

Lewis Hamilton ventured out seven minutes in to the session and twice the 2008 world champion had to catch some rear snap as his McLaren ran over puddles on the straights. "There is plenty of aquaplaning out here," he calmly reported back on the radio. "It's massively wet."

It was just before the halfway mark when the two Toro Rossos braved it, as the rain began to abate slightly. Alguersuari and Buemi worked down into the 2m14s - which convinced others to return to the track - including world champion Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Webber. The Australian quickly established himself at the top of the times with a 2m14.143s. Not for long though.

With just 20 minutes to go Alguersuari moved back to the top with a 2m13.357s. Seconds later, Buemi bumped him to second...

Meanwhile several cars were not coping so well with the weather. Bruno Senna ran wide in the Renault at Turn 5 and continued, Paul di Resta had a huge moment through Eau Rouge before spinning his Force India at Pouhon. Elsewhere both a Williams and a Mercedes ran wide...

Di Resta's acrobatics aside, the Scot was impressively fast, and moved to the top of the times with 15 minutes to go - his lap of 2m12.955s forcing team-mate Adrian Sutil - who had just shot to the top - down to second.

Around the same time, Michael Schumacher became the first of the front-runners to risk the intermediate tyres. His first lap, fairly wild as it was, was good enough to split the Force Indias and go second.

Once again the Toro Rossos responded with ten minutes to go, with first Alguersuari and then Buemi moving back to the front - the Swiss setting a 2m10.580s. The Spaniard then took another chunk off that mark with a 2m09.931s.

The Toro Rossos continued to look robust in the conditions, as more fancied runners proved unable to beat them, or perhaps more concerned about maintaining their four sets of inters and three sets of wets.

But the track by this time was giving more adhesion and it was only a matter of time before one of the big guns established himself and so it was that Webber moved to the top with six minutes to go - 2m08.988s.

That remained the standard as several drivers had a crack at beating it, Hamilton coming closest with a purple first sector on his final lap, which eventually was good enough for second.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time       Gap        Laps
 1.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      2m08.988s             7
 2.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      2m09.046s  + 0.058s   8
 3.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m09.931s  + 0.943s   16
 4.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      2m10.257s  + 1.269s   7
 5.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      2m10.402s  + 1.414s   9
 6.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    2m10.580s  + 1.592s   15
 7.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m10.837s  + 1.849s   12
 8.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  2m11.437s  + 2.449s   13
 9.  Bruno Senna         Renault               2m11.664s  + 2.676s   14
10.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m11.667s  + 2.679s   10
11.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  2m11.874s  + 2.886s   13
12.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         2m13.036s  + 4.048s   15
13.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     2m13.074s  + 4.086s   12
14.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        2m13.182s  + 4.194s   12
15.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               2m13.290s  + 4.302s   15
16.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     2m13.778s  + 4.790s   12
17.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        2m14.334s  + 5.346s   14
18.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         2m14.682s  + 5.694s   11
19.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       2m17.159s  + 8.171s   12
20.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       2m18.039s  + 9.051s   10
21.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          2m19.001s  + 10.013s  12
22.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          2m19.001s  + 10.609s  14
23.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               2m19.597s  + 13.466s  7
24.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               no time               5