Prac One: Massa leads the way in FranceFriday 20th June 2008Felipe Massa was the pace-setter in the final Friday morning practice to ever take place at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.
As the circuit's final grand prix weekend kicked off Ferrari's Massa proved to be the man to beat and the only one to get below the 1:16 barrier.
The Brazilian clocked a 1:15.306 to finish ahead of McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.
Report: With dark clouds overhead Giancarlo Fisichella was the first driver out on track, followed by a string of cars which within ten minutes meant that everyone barring the two Ferraris had completed an installation lap.
Nico Rosberg completed the first lap of the morning, a 1:19.217 for the Williams driver who took a second off his time the following lap. The German continued to lower the benchmark, joined by Sebastien Bourdais, Seb Vettel and Kazuki Nakajima out on track.
vettel went P1, breaking into the 1:16s, followed by Nelson Piquet Jr, who was soon deposed by David Coulthard and Jarno Trulli. Heikki Kovalainen also bumped Piquet Jr down a position.
The McLaren driver improved to first place on his next lap with a 1:16.552. However, he was dethroned by the arrival of Felipe Massa, while Kimi Raikkonen went P3.
Kovalainen then returned to the P1 slot, half a second up on Massa's time with Lewis Hamilton going fourth on his first timed lap. Raikkonen improved to second place only to drop back down to third when Hamilton clocked a 1:16.002 to hit the front.
With half the session completed only the two BMWs had yet to set lap times, while Vettel, Fernando Alonso, David Coulthard and Jarno Trulli completed the top eight behind the McLarens and Ferraris.
F1's newest race winner and Championship leader Robert Kubica went P5 on his first timed lap of the morning, before losing out to Alonso.
Massa took advantage of a clear track to clock a 1:15.896 and head to the top of the table, 0.34s ahead of Hamilton, who also made his way out for another run along with Kovalainen and Raikkonen.
Massa lowered the benchmark on his next lap and again the following lap after setting the fastest second and third sector times.
Hamilton and Kovalainen pushed hard, struggling to keep their MP4-23s on the race-track. Hamilton went off at the Adelaide hairpin while Kovalainen got out of shape at the high-speed Nurburgring chicane.
With ten minutes remaining Hamilton returned to the track after his McLaren mechanics had worked on the front of his MP4-23 to resolve whatever was causing his to lock-up. The Brit, though, was unable to close the gap to Massa, in fact losing ground as the Brazilian continued to improved his P1 time.
The yellow flags came out for the first time with three minutes left on the clock when Fernando Alonso pulled up at Turn Eight with smoke pouring out of the back of his Renault.
Practice One ended with Massa on top, followed by Hamilton, Kovalainen, Raikkonen and Kubica. Alonso, Trulli and Vettel completed the top eight.
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