BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was quickest on the second day. Massa spun off into the gravel at the Ascari chicane, bringing a brief halt to testing. Hamilton was fastest on the third day. Kubica lost control of his car and drove off the track, limiting BMW's testing time as minor repairs were performed on the underside of his car. Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race – two on Friday, and one on Saturday. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted 90 minutes; the third session, on Saturday morning, lasted for an hour. The first session was held on a dry track under cloudy skies; Massa was fastest with a time of 1:47.284, just quicker than his Ferrari teammate Räikkönen. The McLarens of Hamilton and Kovalainen, Alonso, Webber, Bourdais and Vettel completed the top eight. Light rain during the second session grew momentarily heavier halfway through, forcing the teams to switch to their wet set-ups. Hamilton led for most of the running, before Alonso, Massa and Kovalainen set faster times late in the session on a drying track. Räikkönen, Piquet, Coulthard, Bourdais and Webber all had off-track excursions with little damage done; a Fisichella spin at Stavelot forced the session to be halted for ten minutes while the debris was removed and water was cleared from the track. Conditions had not improved by the following morning for the start of the final period of practice, but a drying track late in the session allowed Heidfeld to record the best time, a 1:47.876, ahead of Kovalainen, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Vettel and Räikkönen. Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. In the first 20-minute period, cars finishing 16th or lower were eliminated. The second qualifying period lasted for 15 minutes, at the end of which the fastest ten cars went into the final period, to determine their grid positions for the race. Cars failing to make the final period were allowed to be refuelled before the race but those competing in it were not, and so carried more fuel than they had done in the earlier qualifying sessions. Hamilton clinched his fifth pole position of the season with a time of 1:47.338, ahead of Felipe Massa, who qualified second 0.34 seconds behind his McLaren rival.