But ahead of today’s qualifying session at the 4.35-mile Spa circuit, Heidfeld should be buoyed by his performance in the final 60 minutes of practice.

The German topped the timesheets with a lap of one minute 47.876 seconds, the third best overall from the three sessions as Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen both went quicker yesterday.

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was 0.289secs adrift in second, with Fernando Alonso third in his Renault and championship leader Lewis Hamilton fourth.

Hamilton’s time of 1:48.356secs in his McLaren was set with his first lap of the session which did not arrive until nine minutes from the close.

Twenty seconds after that, Massa finally emerged from his garage, completing just six laps overall, with his best on a heavy fuel load good enough for fifth, finishing 0.816secs behind Heidfeld.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel was sixth, with Raikkonen seventh, followed by the Williams of Nico Rosberg, Renault’s Nelson Piquet and the Red Bull of Mark Webber.

David Coulthard was 12th quickest in his Red Bull, 1.249secs down on Heidfeld, whilst it was another miserable morning for Honda.

Rubens Barrichello was down in 19th, over two seconds off the pace, whilst Jenson Button failed to set a time.

The Briton’s session came to an abrupt halt at the opening La Source hairpin, and just two minutes in, due to an apparent technical fault.