Massa goes quickest at Spa

The track was already damp when the session began following some overnight showers, and the rain hit the Belgian track again after the lunch break, forcing the teams to alter their programmes.

Massa emerged on top of the timesheets after 54 laps, his best time of 1:46.698 set when the track had dried up. The Brazilian caused one of the two red flags of the day when he stopped on track at 2:40pm as a result of a fuel consumption check planned by the team.

Massa finished in front of McLaren's Fernando Alonso, who took over from teammate Lewis Hamilton as the British squad continued with their preparation work for the upcoming races.

The Spaniard finished more than three tenths of a second behind Massa, with Renault's Heikki Kovalainen, third quickest today, over a second behind the Ferrari driver.

It was the first time Kovalainen had driven around Spa in a Formula One car, and the Finn enjoyed his maiden outing at the Belgian circuit.

"I raced at this track in GP2 a couple of years ago, but the first time in an F1 car is always a bit different, no matter which circuit it is," he said. "The car balance was good straight away, and I think we have a good baseline to work from at the GP weekend.

"We then tried to get the most out of the changing track conditions by working on tuning the set-up for the wet conditions, particularly focusing on the control systems. That was a good programme, and we found some interesting things. In spite of the changeable weather, I think we got the most out of the day, and the results were encouraging."

Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota was nearly another second behind Massa after completing just 29 laps as the Japanese squad did not want to waste mileage running in the wet. 

The German was following by Adrian Sutil, who shone in the Spyker to finish the day fifth on the timesheets.

Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais returned to Formula One action for the first of his two days of testing with the Toro Rosso team, who will evaluate the Frenchman as they consider him for a race seat next season.

Bourdais, who caused the second red flag of the day when he stopped on the wet track in the afternoon, finished as eighth quickest after 53 laps.

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica finished at the bottom of the times after managing only 29 laps. The Pole lost a lot of time in the morning as a result of a gearbox problem.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time      Laps  
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:46.698   54   
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:47.012   68  
 3.  Kovalainen    Renault             (B)  1:47.754   44  
 4.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:48.534   29  
 5.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari      (B)  1:48.873   49  
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:48.915   40  
 7.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:49.526   50  
 8.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:49.732   53  
 9.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:50.295   52 
10.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:52.438   54 
11.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (B)  1:55.155   29

All Timing Unofficial