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Belgian GP. FP2 Report. Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton boosted McLaren's hopes of victory in the Belgian Grand Prix by topping the timesheets in the second Friday practice session, though throughout almost the whole field the times were extraordinarily tight.

Not so long ago, finishing within half a second of the quickest man in qualifying at Spa would have guaranteed you a slot on the front two rows. But in FP2 this year, less than half a second covered the top ten runners at the end of an extraordinarily hectic 90 minute practice session.

With most of FP1 in the morning having been ruined by a rain shower, the teams were desperate to do as much work on their setups as possible, and so everyone kept themselves on the track for as long as possible. Even Sebastian Vettel, looking nervily at his engine allocation statistics, did 25 laps of the lengthy track during the session.

By the end of the hectic hour and a half, Lewis Hamilton had emerged at the top of the pile with a lap right at the end of the session. He did have another attempt at topping his time, but ran off at Fagnes on his last-gasp run. Still, his earlier lap was enough to give him P1 for the session, and the fastest time of the day to boot, ahead of the surprising form of Timo Glock's Toyota, the German giving the beleaguered Japanese team something to smile about even if it was in a tremendously minor way.

Kimi Raikkonen took third for Ferrari, less than a tenth behind Hamilton's time, while Mark Webber was easily the best of the title contenders, finishing the session in fourth on a day where he questioned his own chances of sneaking past Jenson Button in the championship standings. Romain Grosjean outperformed his illustrious Renault team mate Fernando Alonso in 5th, a result which should help the shock-haired one's nerves ahead of the important stuff over the next couple of days.

More surprising faces dominated the lower portion of the top ten, with Giancarlo Fisichella forcing his Force India up to 6th, Jarno Trulli ensuring both Toyotas made the top ten in 7th, Robert Kubica taking 8th in his BMW Sauber and rookie Toro Rosso man Jamie Alguersuari managing a hugely impressive 9th. Vettel's Red Bull completed the top ten.

Further back, Heikki Kovalainen could only manage 12th in the second McLaren, while Fernando Alonso was 14th in his Renault. Kazuki Nakajima outperformed his disappointing team mate Nico Rosberg, but could only manage 15th in his Williams Toyota.

The Brawn GP men, meanwhile, who had earmarked Friday's running as an acid test to see if their recent struggles on cold tyres was over, will be disappointed with posting only the 17th and 18th fastest times. While nothing can be definitively concluded from Friday practice in terms of the ultimate pecking order for the weekend, it seems highly likely that Red Bull will be able to take a chunk out of both championship leads this weekend.

Finally, Luca Badoer, having benefited from the wet running in FP1 to break the top ten, returned to his usual miserable last place, miles behind the rest of the runners. Sadly, it looks like Badoer will be gearing up to make his second GP for Ferrari his last one, with the team redoubling efforts to sign someone able of 19th place at the least in time for Monza.

The session saw plenty of incidents, with an early red flag caused by debris on the circuit, and spins for Rubens Barrichello early on, and the Jamine Alguersuari right at the end.