Raikkonen sets the pace in Belgium

Kimi Raikkonen pushed dominant Ferrari down the timesheets as McLaren led the way in today's practice for the Belgian Formula…

Kimi Raikkonen pushed dominant Ferrari down the timesheets as McLaren led the way in today's practice for the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix.

Raikkonen, set to be Finland's sole Formula One driver with Mika Salo following Mika Hakkinen into retirement at the end of the year, lapped the longest circuit in the championship in one minute 47.196 seconds.

The time, on a cloudy day with morning fog delaying practice by an hour, was well inside last year's pole position mark but the track layout has been amended slightly.

Team mate David Coulthard completed a first day McLaren one-two as the second quickest, in 1:47.356, while Ferrari's five times world champion Michael Schumacher was third on the timesheets in 1:47.403.

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Ferrari, who sealed their fourth successive constructors' title in Hungary two weeks ago, had lapped in a league of their own during the first truncated session.

However, lap times mean little this early in the weekend, with the teams concentrating on various aspects of set-up before Saturday's qualifying.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher's team mate, was fastest in the morning but he spun out in the afternoon and was left as a spectator.

He ended up fourth fastest in a session with little incident, apart from a spectacular engine failure that sent smoke across the track from Takuma Sato's stricken Honda- powered Jordan.

Schumacher, who clinched his record-equalling title in France last month and could become the first driver to win 10 races in a season this weekend, has won five times at Spa.