Schuey remains confident

The German had a particularly scrappy second session surviving a 100mph spin on the exit of the first element of Stavelot as well as locking up at la Source. It seemed that both Schumacher and team-mate Rubens Barrichello found it difficult to turn the car in on the slower corners.

Despite his blunders, Schumacher still remains confident of a good result this weekend.

"It was a productive Friday practice session and we seemed to have plenty of time to work through our planned programme without having to hurry," the German said. "In fact, the red flag in this afternoon's session actually gave us more time to work on our programme. I am quite happy with the balance of the car. Now we must finalise our decision regarding tyre choice and I am looking forward to the rest of the weekend with confidence."

Barrichello, on the other hand, believes there is still work to be done on his car, but the Brazilian expected this to be the case at Spa.

"This circuit always requires a great deal of work to get the set-up compromise right to suit the mix of different types of corner," he said. "To be honest, I feel we still have some work to do in this respect and now we will be studying all the data, prior to making progress tomorrow morning."

The weather at Spa often plays a key role in the outcome of the race, but technical director Ross Brawn believes the Ferrari and Bridgestone package will be able to cope with any wet weather that's thrown at it.

"The choice of which Bridgestone tyre to use looks pretty clear: it looks consistent and with a bit of tuning to the car we should be in good shape," Brawn said. "The weather forecast for tomorrow is not good, but I think the car-engine-Bridgestone tyre package can also be competitive in the wet."