Planet-F1

Prac Two: Kimi makes up for lost time

Friday 9th May 2008

Kimi Raikkonen put his earlier gearbox problems behind him to set the fastest time in Friday's second practice session in Istanbul.

The reigning F1 World Champion and current points-leader clocked a 1:27.543 to beat Lewis Hmailton by 0.039s. Felipe Massa was third.

The session began with a damp track as rain had fallen prior to the start of practice, although

Sebastien Bourdais was once again the first driver to set a lap time, however, he soon lost out to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who was making up time after completing just three laps in the morning session.

The Finn set fastest sector time after fastest sector time as he built-up to setting an overall fastest lap time, a 1:27.543.

His team-mate Felipe Massa slotted into second, however, he was 0.616s off the pace while third-placed Lewis Hamilton was a further two tenths adrift.

The drivers, though, were forced to return to the pits on the half-an-hour mark when Mark Webber crashed his RB4. The Aussie lost control of his car, running across the track and hitting the barriers head-on, causing severe damage to the car.

The session was therefore red flagged as the marshals cleared away the debris and what was left of Webber's car. The Red Bull driver escaped unhurt from the crash.

Practice was restarted seven minutes later with Heikki Kovalainen the first back out on track, moving up to third place ahead of Hamilton.

With the track drying and a switch to dry weather tyres the drivers lap times began to fall before the timesheets settled down as they tried various fuel loads and got a feel for race conditions.

David Coulthard briefly popped up into third place using the softer option Bridgestone compounds before he was overhauled by Kovalainen.

The last 20 minutes saw most of the drivers switch to the softer tyres with Massa closing up to within a two tenth of Raikkonen's P1 time.

Nico Rosberg improved to sixth place for Williams while Kazuki Nakajima goes P10. Hamilton upped his pace to take second place off Massa, just 0.039s behind Raikkonen.

Coulthard is fourth followed by Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Jarno Trulli and Nakajima.

Times
01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:27.543 30 laps
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:27.579 31 laps
03 F. Massa Ferrari 1:27.682 29 laps
04 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:27.763 24 laps
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:27.954 27 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:28.431 29 laps
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.619 29 laps
08 K. Nakajima Williams 1:28.664 27 laps
09 F. Alonso Renault 1:28.681 26 laps
10 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:28.817 31 laps
11 J. Button Honda 1:28.826 28 laps
12 T. Glock Toyota 1:28.849 26 laps
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:28.907 29 laps
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:29.008 35 laps
15 R. Barrichello Honda 1:29.024 22 laps
16 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:29.212 26 laps
17 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:29.462 30 laps
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:29.630 32 laps
19 M. Webber Red Bull 1:29.633 4 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:30.832 9 laps