Maldonado quickest in Spa practice

The track started damp from rain earlier in the day but dried as the session went on, prompting questions over the right time to switch to slicks.

That was answered when Diego Nunes shot to the top of the timing screens with six minutes remaining, and the lap times went into freefall from there on.

At one point Nico Hulkenberg was quickest by nearly six seconds, the German benefiting from being the only front-runner with a clear track, but both Maldonado and Alvaro Parente managed to clear the traffic to topple the German on their last flying lap.

Hulkenberg, however, left a final indicator of what might have been by setting the fastest times of the session over the first two sectors of his in-lap.

Despite the tricky conditions, the field was relatively well-behaved, although Sergio Perez, Stefano Coletti, Alberto Valerio and Nelson Panciatici all had cause to lean on the run-off area at various stages.

Pos  Driver                Team                          Time      Laps
 1.  Pastor Maldonado      ART Grand Prix                2:04.889   12
 2.  Alvaro Parente        Ocean Racing Technology       2:05.858   11
 3.  Giedo van der Garde   iSport International          2:07.119   10
 4.  Nico Hulkenberg       ART Grand Prix                2:07.961   12
 5.  Jerome d'Ambrosio     DAMS                          2:09.453   12
 6.  Alberto Valerio       Piquet GP                     2:11.910   12
 7.  Vitaly Petrov         Barwa Addax Team              2:11.929   10
 8.  Sergio Perez          Telmex Arden International    2:12.406   13
 9.  Javier Villa          Super Nova Racing             2:12.760   13
10.  Davide Valsecchi      Barwa Addax Team              2:12.991   12
11.  Roldan Rodriguez      Piquet GP                     2:13.407   13
12.  Dani Clos             Fat Burner Racing Eng.        2:13.469   11
13.  Edoardo Mortara       Telmex Arden International    2:13.488   11
14.  Davide Rigon          Trident Racing                2:14.008   13
15.  Lucas di Grassi       Fat Burner Racing Eng.        2:14.231   11
16.  Kamui Kobayashi       DAMS                          2:14.377   11
17.  Luca Filippi          Super Nova Racing             2:14.770   12
18.  Nelson Panciatici     Durango                       2:15.019   12
19.  Karun Chandhok        Ocean Racing Technology       2:15.410   12
20.  Diego Nunes           iSport International          2:15.638   12
21.  Ricardo Teixeira      Trident Racing                2:17.542   11
22.  Franck Perera         DPR                           2:17.592   7
23.  Stefano Coletti       Durango                       2:17.605   11
24.  Michael Herck         DPR                           2:18.071   8