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Belgian Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso fastest for Ferrari in dry final practice

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso set the pace as the skies cleared over Spa-Francorchamps and the Formula 1 field finally managed some dry running in Saturday morning practice

Kimi Raikkonen put Lotus in second place, ahead of an impressive run from the Saubers of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi.

With no dry running on Friday, teams had to cram a lot of work into practice three. That meant a wild diversity of approach early on as some focused on heavy-fuel runs while others were clearly quickly into qualifying preparations.

That meant the unusual sight of the Marussias holding their own in the top five a long way into the session while the McLarens were towards the lower end of the top 20 initially.

Williams's Bruno Senna was the early pacesetter, before Ferrari hit the front. Alonso was onto soft tyres within 25 minutes, improving on his medium tyre benchmark of 1m50.936s to move further clear with a 1m50.690s.

That kept him in front for 10 minutes before Sauber showed great pace on softs, with Perez and Kobayashi holding a one-two for a spell.

They were briefly deposed by Romain Grosjean's Lotus - running medium tyres - and then Red Bull's Mark Webber, also on the harder rubber.

Sauber's speed was not a one-off as Perez and Kobayashi returned to the front going into the final five minutes, again using softs.

But the hard-charging Alonso fought back, catching some high-speed slides on the way to a 1m48.542s as the chequered flag neared.

That kept him on top, while Raikkonen slipped ahead of the Saubers for second, 0.141 seconds off the Ferrari.

McLaren's lead runner was Jenson Button in fifth position, seven spots ahead of Lewis Hamilton, as team appeared to stay focused on race preparation.

Felipe Massa looked capable of matching Ferrari team-mate Alonso's pace before losing time towards the end of his best lap, leaving him sixth.

The Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were seventh and ninth, split by Romain Grosjean's Lotus, with Paul di Resta completing the top 10 for Force India.

While most drivers were able to make up for lost time in practice three, Nico Rosberg will go into qualifying with barely any dry running.

His Mercedes managed just five laps in the session before slowing to a halt at Pouhon with a mechanical problem.

Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m48.542s            18
 2.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m48.683s  + 0.141s  21
 3.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m48.850s  + 0.308s  23
 4.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m48.863s  + 0.321s  20
 5.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m49.091s  + 0.549s  18
 6.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m49.092s  + 0.550s  16
 7.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m49.164s  + 0.622s  21
 8.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m49.266s  + 0.724s  23
 9.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m49.292s  + 0.750s  23
10.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m49.382s  + 0.840s  22
11.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m49.561s  + 1.019s  23
12.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m49.615s  + 1.073s  19
13.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m49.621s  + 1.079s  26
14.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m49.674s  + 1.132s  23
15.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.710s  + 1.168s  21
16.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.776s  + 1.234s  22
17.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault      1m50.027s  + 1.485s  20
18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m52.339s  + 3.797s  21
19.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m52.566s  + 4.024s  20
20.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m52.630s  + 4.088s  18
21.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault      1m52.809s  + 4.267s  22
22.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m53.383s  + 4.841s  22
23.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m53.562s  + 5.020s  23
24.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m58.113s  + 9.571s  5

All timing unofficial

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