Christian Klien put himself in pole position for the second race seat with Spyker after completing a full day's testing today with the team at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Christijan Albers was axed on Tuesday by the Dutch outfit, who cited "financial difficulties" as their reason claiming they had not been paid by one of the 28-year-old's sponsors.

Spyker then approached Honda, asking permission to use test driver Klien for the final day of the three-day programme at the Belgian circuit that returns to the Formula One calendar in September.

The Austrian did not disappoint, completing 63 laps, with his best an unofficial one minute 49.119secs, just two seconds off the pace set by Kimi Raikkonen for Ferrari.

A decision as to who will drive for Spyker at the Grand Prix of Europe in 10 days' time is due to be announced soon.

Klien, though, knows he has increased his chances of competing at the Nurburgring.

"Obviously it was a new team, new car and a new seat and it took some time to get used to it, but there is a good bunch of people here and I felt at home straight away," said Klien.

"We did a lot of mileage, but obviously today's focus was to get used to the car and how the engine and gearbox works.

"I think it all went well, there is potential in the car and I enjoyed the day."

Raikkonen kept Ferrari out in front after Massa had yesterday topped the unofficial timesheets, with the Finn clocking 1:47.042 for the revamped 7.004km track.

Robert Kubica was second quickest for BMW Sauber, followed by two- time world champion Fernando Alonso in his McLaren, and then Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber.

Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), Alexander Wurz (Williams) and Jarno Trulli (Toyota) were fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

Champ Car champion for the last three years Sebastien Bourdais was eighth for Toro Rosso, who are due to decide soon if the Frenchman has a race seat for 2008.

Takuma Sato completed 99 laps for Super Aguri and was ninth, while Rubens Barrichello was 10th for Honda, with Klien bringing up the rear.

sportinglife.com