Warm-up: Michael the boss again

More conclusively, Schumacher's 1m49.495s lap was 1.281s faster than his brother Ralf Schumacher's Williams and 1.498s to the good over pole-sitter Juan Pablo Montoya. If Schuey Sr wins, it will be his 52nd Formula 1 victory, moving him clear of current joint record holder Alain Prost in the list of all-time winners.

The 30-minute session was the last chance for the teams to fine-tune their set-ups on representative fuel loads, but was run in dry conditions. For the race itself, heavy rain has not been ruled out...

Mika Hakkinen's McLaren-Mercedes was second fastest, despite a minor off that saw his car kiss the tyre barrier at Fagnes. His team mate David Coulthard could manage only 12th as he gears up to defend second place in the world championship points.

Kimi Raikkonen's Sauber-Petronas was an excellent third, ahead of Ralf and the Jaguar of Eddie Irvine, who again demonstrated the race-spec potency of a package that unfortunately rarely qualifies well.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was sixth for Prost, ahead of Montoya and Jarno Trulli's Jordan-Honda. The latter had to switch to the spare after a grassy off ripped off his front wing and bargeboards, but escape of the day went to Minardi's Fernando Alonso, who destroyed his car at Stavelot in the closing seconds of the session.

The Spaniard, who is linked to a switch to Arrows for next year, lost control on the entry to the fast right-hander and spun into the outer barrier at barely abated speed. The wheels and sidepods were ripped off the car and the tub and engine came to rest on the inside verge. Alonso was able to walk away unaided, but it had been a wake-up call in a Belgian GP meeting so far relatively free of incident.

For full warm-up results, click here.