Raikkonen Pleased despite Lack of Running

The Finn topped the times with a late run in the first session, which took place on a damp but drying track, and then chose to sit out second practice after it was hit by a downpour.

But despite a far from normal day, Raikkonen claims that he feels comfortable about the general feeling of his MP4-20.

"I did one run at the end of the first session, but the conditions on the drying track were not ideal," he said. "However the car felt good straight away, and we will just have to wait and see what the weather does tomorrow.

"I like Spa and this is an important weekend me and the team, and we will just continue to focus on winning the race - whether it's wet or dry."

McLaren teammate Juan Pablo Montoya had a far more frustrating day. He sat out first practice while his team changed the engine on his car before the weather caused him to also abort plans for any running in the afternoon session.

"I didn't get the chance to run in the dry today when I had to sit out the first practice as the team had to do a precautionary engine change on my car," explained the Colombian.

"The second session was obviously very wet from the beginning so it was no use doing any running. At least Alex got a decent amount of laps done in the first session so we will really have to rely on his feedback. I look forward to tomorrow when the weather hopefully will be dry, but as this is Spa you never know."