Monaco Grand Prix: Qualifying Report

On form Felipe Massa secured something of a shock result in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix by taking pole position. The boy from Brazil, who claims he hates the Monaco street circuit, beat the much fancied McLarens and his teammate Raikkonen with whom he will share an all Ferrari front row. Massa himself appeared as surprised as anyone during the press conference, as he was clearly thrilled with his own performance. Raikkonen looked considerably less impressed though, as most would have expected him to beat Massa comfortably. Is Massa emerging as a genuine favourite for the title?

It had been predicted all week long that the McLarens would be the cars to beat in Monaco, with their superior traction and stability over the kerbs. Few would have predicted anything other than a Hamilton pole position, yet he will have to settle for third place behind two Ferraris. Interestingly, throughout the afternoon Hamilton was massively quicker than anyone during the first sector but couldn't maintain it over the course of a full lap. Either his set up isn't quite right for the second half of the lap, or he was cooking the tyres too early in the lap and losing pace later on. Of course, we will have to wait and see what the situation is regarding fuel loads in tomorrow's race. Have McLaren gone too conservative in their race strategy? Have Ferrari been too aggressive? Or was it just a case of the red cars being quicker than the silver ones?

Robert Kubica had an excellent qualifying session, finishing just thousandths of a second away from a place on the second row. He will share the third row with Nico Rosberg, who has so far been the star of the weekend in the Williams. Rosberg fell short of upsetting the big boys as he had threatened to do earlier in the weekend, but P6 is an fine performance all the same. Fernando Alonso will struggle to make it a hat-trick of Monaco victories from P7 in his extremely tail-happy Renault. Interestingly he chose to stay on the harder tyre throughout qualifying as he didn't like the balance on the softs. That could cause problems for him if the weather stays dry and he needs to use the option tyre in the race. Trulli is 8th while Webber is in a solid P9 ahead of his teammate Coulthard.

DC didn't make it out onto the track in Q3 after binning his Red Bull spectacularly while braking into la Nouvelle Chicane in Q2. The car snapped right violently as he jumped on the brakes at over 180mph, and he speared into the armco and slid off down the escape road at great speed. Whether it was just a case of the rears locking up over the vicious bumps down there, or some kind of mechanical failure at the rear of the car remains to be seen. Compatriot Jenson Button had a similar kind of accident here in a BAR in 2003 and ended up being carried from the cockpit unconscious and stretchered straight to hospital after hitting the old tyre wall down there, but no such worries for DC. He narrowly missed the tyres and went straight down the escape road, such are the fine margins here at Monaco. Button's 2003 accident HERE..

Button himself will start in 12th alongside Timo Glock's Toyota in 11th place. Nick Heidfeld was 13th for BMW, which was arguably as big a surprise as Massa's pole position. We will have to wait and see whether there was a problem for Heidfeld, as his BMW should have been at least in the top ten. Nakajima is 14th after being comprehensively thrashed by his Williams teammate Rosberg, ahead of Rubens Barrichello.

No major surprises as to who went out in the first qualy session with both Toro Rossos and both Force Indias missing out. Piquet was the man to join them, which is no great shock as he has looked like the guy struggling the most to cope with the demands of the Monaca circuit, from his spin in Thursday practice to his erratic qualifying performance.

Almost the very instant the F1 cars returned to their garage after qualifying the rain began to fall in Monaco for the second GP2 race. It is looking increasingly likely from the forecasts that tomorrow will indeed be a wet race, and that will really be a wildcard factor for everybody on the grid. Normally qualifying strongly will virtually guarantee you a strong finish at Monaco (reliability worries excluded), but in the rain nothing is certain. Without traction control it will be treacherous for the drivers, particularly if there is standing water from the start on the run up to the first corner. It will be even more interesting if the race isn't wet throughout. If it starts dry and turns wet later on, or vice-versa, it could easily throw the teams' meticulously planned strategies out of the window. It should be fascinating to watch.

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Massa
2. Raikkonen
3. Hamilton
4. Kovalainen
5. Kubica
6. Rosberg
7. Alonso
8. Trulli
9. Webber
10. Coulthard
11. Glock
12. Button
13. Heidfeld
14. Nakajima
15. Barrichello
16. Bourdais
17. Piquet
18. Vettel
19. Sutil
20. Fisichella
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Monaco Grand Prix: Practice Two

Lewis Hamilton signaled his and McLaren's intent to return to winning ways with a blistering lap to take the top spot in Thursday's second free practice session. His 1:15.1s lap put him almost a full four tenths of a second ahead of the rest. The man who took the spot behind Hamilton wasn't either his teammate or a Ferrari driver. It was Williams' Nico Rosberg, who was proving his form in the first session was no fluke. The young German is on fire so far in Monaco, and he will no doubt have raised a few eyebrows in the paddock.

Kimi Raikkonen followed up his fine performance in first practice with a solid third place for Ferrari ahead of Massa, Kovalainen and Kubica. Kubica's BMW though was a full 1.1 seconds behind Hamilton's time, which will be disheartening for them after their poor showing in Turkey. Perhaps BMW are beginning to wane after their excellent early season pace?

Fernando Alonso was seventh, but it was a rather eventful session for Alonso and indeed the whole Renault team. Firstly Nelson Piquet spun at the apex of St Devote and went backwards into the tyre barrier. Fortunately he was able to driver himself out of the barrier, but his rear wing was damaged and needed replacing. Then shortly after that Fernando Alonso also lost the back end going through St Devote. He would on the opposite lock, but was eventually saved from spinning by his rear end clipping the armco barrier. He was able to keep the car pointing the right way up the hill, but ended up losing his rear wing in the process. The session was red flagged to clear the debris.

Adrian Sutil was another driver who tasted armco in this session. He caught too much kerb in la Rascasse and bounced into the barrier on the corner exit, damaging his front wing. In truth, both the Force Indias and Toro Rossos have struggled badly so far. Teams with their limited budgets and resources aren't able to prepare unique suspension set ups in the multi-million pound simulators like the big teams do, and they struggle with the unique demands of the Monte Carlo bumps and kerbs.

Elsewhere, David Coulthard finally got some track time under his belt after the team fixed what turned out to be a throttle problem in first practice. He finished in 14th place, just behind his teammate Webber. The Hondas have looked pretty decent so far in practice, with both drivers in the top ten in this session. They look fairly evenly matched on pace with the likes of the Renaults here, which is good news for the Japanese squad.

So the drivers now go for their day off on Friday (the only circuit where that happens), while the teams will no doubt be hard at work preparing their cars and doing the maths for the all important race strategies. The action will recommence on Saturday with a morning practice session, and then the qualifying session which is perhaps more important here than at any other circuit.

Practice Two Times

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:15.140 40 laps
02 N. Rosberg Williams 1:15.533 39 laps
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.572 42 laps
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:15.869 37 laps
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:15.881 39 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.296 34 laps
07 F. Alonso Renault 1:16.310 27 laps
08 J. Button Honda 1:16.351 45 laps
09 K. Nakajima Williams 1:16.372 40 laps
10 R. Barrichello Honda 1:16.418 32 laps
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:16.426 44 laps
12 T. Glock Toyota 1:16.688 46 laps
13 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.094 39 laps
14 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:17.131 39 laps
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:17.246 35 laps
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:17.251 33 laps
17 J. Trulli Toyota 1:17.379 28 laps
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:17.581 38 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:18.176 31 laps
20 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.225 38 laps Read more!

Monaco Grand Prix: Practice One

Kimi Raikkonen took first blood in the opening practice session of the Grand Prix weekend, beating the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen into second and third respectively. Felipe Massa took fourth for Ferrari as the two big teams looked in a class of their own at the front of the field. Nico Rosberg produced the surprise of the session, getting his Williams into P5 ahead of the likes of the BMWs.

Practice One got underway with the Monaco harbour bathed in beautiful Mediterranean sun. with no sign of any rain. There were major incidents as the drivers seemed to take things pretty tentatively in this first session while the track rubbered up a little. There was the odd lock up here and there, but no real spins or crashes.

The biggest drama of the session came about an hour in when the session was red-flagged. It wasn't for any accidents or breakdowns though. Several drivers had complained about a drain cover coming loose on the uphill run out of St Devote. After inspection from the race director a welder was called for and the problem fixed. Hopefully that will be the last problem of its kind to worry about, but it was certainly a strange one. The organisation and preparation for this race is usually absolutely meticulous and perfect.

As the session progressed it became clear that the drivers were favouring the harder of the two tyres. Bridgestone has brought some of its softest compounds to Monaco this weekend, but it seems the drivers are struggling to get more than a lap or two out of the option tyre. They're just too soft for the abrasive nature of the track. It will be interesting to see how this affects race strategy when all drivers will be forced to drive at least one stint on these super-soft tyres.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli ended his session by pulling off into the escape road after his car started smoking as it went through the tunnel. Nick Heidfeld was another to run into difficulties as he parked his BMW in Casino Square with a mystery technical gremlin. David Coulthard barely made it out of the pits in his Red Bull, just doing a few sighter laps and not even setting a time.

Practice One Times

01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.948 26 laps
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:16.216 26 laps
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.248 27 laps
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:16.292 25 laps
05 N. Rosberg Williams 1:16.653 27 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.653 27 laps
07 F. Alonso Renault 1:17.498 25 laps
08 R. Barrichello Honda 1:17.511 26 laps
09 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.798 22 laps
10 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:17.883 26 laps
11 T. Glock Toyota 1:17.942 26 laps
12 J. Button Honda 1:18.153 25 laps
13 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.245 30 laps
14 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:18.263 13 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.274 28 laps
16 J. Trulli Toyota 1:18.360 16 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:18.360 25 laps
18 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.955 32 laps
19 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.176 35 laps
20 D. Coulthard Red Bull no time 3 laps Read more!

Monaco Grand Prix: Preview

After the thrills and spills of Istanbul, the glamorous centre-piece of the Formula 1 season is upon us - the 66th running of the Grand Prix de Monaco. With the ban on traction control for 2008, the bumpy street circuit in Monte Carlo has been the most eagerly anticipated race of the year. The track will once again be Formula One's greatest challenge for a driver, with no nannying electronics to bail them out of trouble, and the armco barriers that line the course being as punishing as ever. This will be especially true if the rain showers that are predicted for Saturday and Sunday materialise!

The Monaco circuit couldn't be a greater contrast to the circuit in Istanbul last time out. The perfectly manicured track, with its wide and super-fast sweeping corners and enormous run-off areas are being swapped for the dirty, bumpy, oily and painfully tight and twisty streets of the Principality. This is one of the few races of the season where traction and suspension compliance play as big a role as engine power and aerodynamic grip, if not more. Make a mistake in the fast corners at Istanbul and you have yards and yards of run-off tarmac to bail you out. Make a mistake in Monaco and you will be greeted with the armco barriers.

As such, it has been predicted that the McLaren cars will be the most suited to this track. Whilst the Ferraris appear to have the advantage on the 'normal' race tracks, the McLaren is deemed to be the best car on the grid at riding the kerbs and bumps. Of course, this is all just guess work from the pundits and Ferrari will undoubtedly still be strong. Plus this is one of the few tracks where driver skill will really make a significant difference, so having the best car may not count for everything come race-day.

Fernando has been the guy on form here in recent years, winning the last two Grand Prix consecutively. However, he will be in an inferior Renault car this year around and he will struggle to make it a hat-trick. One feels his best chance will be if rain falls. Lewis Hamilton was second here last time out, and has professed that this is his all time favourite circuit. He always excelled here in his Formula 3 and GP2 days, and drove pretty well here last year. If McLaren do indeed have the best package then Hamilton will surely be the man to beat.

Kimi Raikkonen is a past winner here, back in 2005 in a McLaren. He will have a great chance of doubling his Monaco tally here, although Ferrari seem to have had a strange hoodoo at this circuit in recent years. Despite being a dominant force in F1 for years they haven't taken the chequered flag here since Michael Schumacher in 2001. Felipe Massa will have a job on his hands to repeat his Turkey success here as he is one of the drivers who is struggling the most with the loss of traction control. He may struggle even more if it rains. Still, he may yet upset the form books.

The other two former winners in the field this year are Jarno Trulli and two-time winner and Monaco resident David Coulthard. However, neither driver will be expected to challenge for podiums here. Both drivers will be hoping to get themselves into the points for Toyota and Red Bull respectively, although the battle in the midfield will be as fierce as ever.

If the rain does fall as some have predicted, then we could have a real spectacle on our hands. The last wet race in Monaco was in 1996 and only FOUR cars made it over the line, with Olivier Panis scoring one of the biggest shock victories in F1 history in Ligier-Mugen-Honda. Another notable wet Monaco race was in 1984 when the race was abandoned after 31 laps with just 9 cars still running, and the numbers falling rapidly. That race was of course most fondly remembered as the day that youngsters Ayrton Senna and Stefan Bellof stunned the F1 world with their pace and their bravery in the wet. Sadly neither man is still with us, god rest their souls... Read more!

Turkish Grand Prix: Race Report

Felipe Massa has secured an excellent pole to flag victory for the third successive year with a fine performance, and played his way firmly back into contention in the title race. Behind him there was a fantastic scrap for second place between the two drivers currently at the top of the points standings, Raikkonen and Massa. It was a thrilling race with passing, some great wheel-to-wheel racing, and some fascinating strategy.

It was the perfect start for Felipe Massa who lead the pack down the very short straight into turn one, but there was the customary opening lap drama behind him. Hamilton got an excellent start and made it past his team mate to squeeze into P2. Kovalainen seemed to get off the line well but strangely bogged down and was falling into the clutches of Raikkonen and Kubica. Kubica made a successful pass around the outside but Kimi found himself boxed in on the inside and had to back out of the throttle. It wasn’t enough to stop coming into light contact with Kovalainen and caused a left rear puncture to the unlucky McLaren driver. As a result of Kimi slowing Fernando Alonso was also able to get past and into fifth place

At the back of the grid there was a rather nasty collision caused by Giancarlo Fisichella. From the back row of the grid he went steaming into the braking zone at turn one way too fast and launched his Force India right over the back of Nakajima’s Williams. In the process he also punctured ‘Mr Unlucky’ Sebastien Vettel’s tyre and damaged his own team mate’s front wing. In his defence there were cars jinking left and right in front of him, but a man of his experience should know better than to go screaming so fast into what is a notoriously tricky first corner. This is the third year in a row that Fisi has failed to make it past the first corner.

During the first stint there emerged a great battle for the lead at the front of the pack. Massa and Hamilton were in a class of their own as they traded fastest laps consistently, and rapidly dropped third placed man Kubica. Raikkonen was making a good recovery and managed to get back past Alonso, although in truth Alonso just gifted him the position. We know the Ferrari is the much faster the car, but it would have been nice to see at least some kind of a fight from a double world champion. Very disappointing.

Entering the first round of pit stops Hamilton was the first man to blink, coming in surprisingly early. He was catching Massa and in truth was probably being held up a little. Whether he was really completely out of fuel or decided to change strategy mid-race we will have to see, but it was a bold move to come in so early. It was a very short stop, and it looked like he was running a risky and very bold three stop strategy. Massa came in a few laps later and was able to emerge from the stop in front of Hamilton, but the young Brit had the bit between his teeth and with a lighter car was very quickly pressuring Massa.

Championship leader Raikkonen was the last of the front runners to stop, which put his qualifying performance into perspective somewhat, and he was able to get out comfortably in front of Kubica. Meanwhile, further down the field there was a snake of very close cars in the midfield with Piquet, Button and Glock and ahead of them Trulli was getting racey with Coulthard.

With his aggressive pitstop strategy Lewis Hamilton knew he had to get past Massa as soon as possible, and he did just that. Despite Massa taking a very defensive line on the long run down to turn 12, there was just a hint of a gap and Hamilton took it with a perfectly executed late-braking manoeuvre. With clean air in front of him for the first time Hamilton set about gaining as much of an advantage as possible, and he quickly romped away into the distance. This period would perhaps decide the fate of the race.

After another super quick pit stop from the McLaren boys Hamilton was back out on the track, but behind both Ferraris. It looked as though Massa had done enough whilst following Hamilton to be able to hold onto his lead and his incredible record at the Turkish Grand Prix. Hamilton though was within a couple of seconds of Raikkonen. The story of the race would now be about who would come out on top out of the two championship protagonists.

There was some fantastic racing further down the grid, facilitated by the excellent design of the Istanbul Park circuit. Kovalainen was fighting his was back through the field after his early puncture, putting some great moves on the back markers. He had one particularly good fight with Toyota’s Timo Glock, who is well known from his GP2 days as being one of the most aggressive wheel-to-wheel racers around. He wasn’t about to give up his position without a fight! Although the Glock did well to fend him off through the final complex of corners, Heikki was able to power past him down the pit straight. Either the Mercedes engine has a big horsepower advantage over the Toyota, or the McLaren has a lot less drag. Nelson Piquet also had a great duel with Jenson Button just in front of them.

After Hamilton’s final splash and dash style stop he emerged fractionally in front of Raikkonen. Now however he was on the soft tyres which he hated so much throughout free practice. Could Hamilton hold off the Flying Finn?

In the end he was able to keep the world champion at bay by just 0.4 seconds and secure his best result for quite a while. He has a huge debt of gratitude to his pit crew who put together three fantastic stops which enabled him to squeeze ahead of Kimi for the final stint.

The BMWs followed in fourth and fifth, but in truth they were nowhere near the pace of the leaders. They have definitely fallen back somewhat since the last race. Alonso put in a decent performance to beat Mark Webber fairly comfortably, and Nico Rosberg was the final point scorer. He had one of the best battles of the race with his old GP2 sparring partner Heikki Kovalainen, but eventually got back ahead of him after the McLaren driver’s final splash and dash. Coulthard finished ninth after a good race-long battle with fellow veteran Jarno Trulli.

In the end, after all the drama of the race the biggest thing we learned from the race was that Ferrari are no longer creeping ahead of the pack in terms of pace. McLaren have definitely pegged them back somewhat. This bodes extremely well for the rest of the championship. If there are plenty more close battles like this for the rest of the season then Formula One fans will be in for a treat!
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Turkish Grand Prix: Qualifying Report

Istanbul specialist Felipe Massa notched up his third successive Turkish Grand Prix pole position with a consummate display for Ferrrai. It wasn't all glory for the Scuderia as McLaren took second and third place on the grid with a strong performance, leaving World Champion Kimi Raikkonen in fourth. The top two teams seemed to be in a class of their own as fifth place man Robert Kubica was over four tenths of adrift of Raikkonen.

The session got underway in cooler than expected conditions with crosswinds potentially causing problems in some of the Istanbul circuit's extremely high speed corners. With the withdrawal of the Super Aguri team the qualifying rules were re-jigged somewhat, meaning that just five cars would be eliminated in the first two sessions. This may at first seem an advantage for the remaining teams, but in reality the Super Aguri's were always virtually guaranteed to be eliminated in the first session anyway. This means that now there is increased potential for someone from the more established teams to drop out in the first session if they make a mistake.

The big losers with the loss of Super Aguri will probably be Force India as they are now going to be odds on favourites to be filling the back row of the grid at every Grand Prix, and so it proved to be here as Sutil and Fisichella were the two slowest cars in the first session. They were joined on the sidelines by Sebastien Bourdais in the Toro Rosso, but also surprisingly by Kazuki Nakajima and Nelson Piquet. Nakajima had looked strong earlier in the weekend so will be extremely disappointed with his performance today. Piquet though was the worst performer in qualifying today.

At the start of the season in Melbourne Piquet had the excuses that he was struggling with a poor handling car, and that he was driving a completely unfamiliar circuit. Now though he has a Renault that is performing very strongly and is driving circuits that he has driven plenty of times before. He is fast running out of excuses and has nowhere to hide after that dismal display.

The stars of the first session were Timo Glock and Sebastian Vettel. Vettel impressed simply by making it to the second session in the Toro Rosso, and Glock impressed with an excellent P4. However, neither driver could replicate the magic in Q2. Glock especially disappointed by somehow ending up last of the 15 remaining runners, behind Vettel even. The guy clearly has pace but needs to build much more consistency into his driving.

They were joined in the drop zone by the two Hondas of Button and Barrichello and the Williams of Rosberg. Honda seem to have struggled a little this weekend after a couple of really promising displays in the last few races. Williams too are struggling a little and are dropping further behind midfield rivals like Renault and Red Bull. They are struggling to live up to their pre-season form.

Coulthard put in an excellent lap in this session to get through to the final shootout for the first time in a while. It had been reported by some that he was under pressure from the team after a couple of poor races. He certainly answered a few of those critics with his performance today. He eventually finished in 10th place on the grid but will be encouraged by this showing. In fact, the whole Red Bull team will be encouraged after Mark Webber put together an excellent lap to take P6 in the sister Red Bull.

In between the two Red Bulls were Fernando Alonso, showing Renault's big improvement in pace, qualifying specialist Jarno Trulli, and Nick Heidfeld in ninth. It was a disappointing performance from birthday boy Heidfeld, and capped a pretty disappointing day for BMW all round. They were expecting to be able to challenge the Ferrari and McLaren drivers for places on the front two rows, but in truth were no where near. After a superb start to the season it seems that maybe the BMWs are struggling to live with the pace of progress at the pointy end of the grid.

There were a couple of points of real interest in the final minutes as the big boys went for the glory. Firstly, Lewis Hamilton looked to be having all sorts of balance problems in the daunting turn 8. He had a massive slide on one hot lap, and did brilliantly to even stay on the track at all. This was on the harder, prime tyre so it was expected that he would make the switch to the softer option tyre for his final run. Lewis surprised everyone however by sticking on the harder compound for his final lap. He apparently felt that the softer tyre was losing performance by the end of the lap and preferred to run with the hard. He drove an excellent lap and put his McLaren 3rd despite still fighting the car all the way through turn 8. His teammate showed what the McLaren could do on the softer tyre though by putting together an excellent lap to get onto the front row of the grid alongside Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen was unable to challenge the McLarens or his teammate after running into trouble on his final lap. There seemed to be a miscalculation from Ferrari in terms of getting Kimi some clean air on track, and he ended up catching Fernando Alonso's Renault in the middle of his hot lap. He undoubtedly lost a tenth or two negotiating his way past the Spaniard and his chance at pole was gone.

With Kimi's traffic problems and Hamilton's unusual decision to go with the harder tyre it is hard to get a good read on the fuel loads of the top four runners, so we will have to wait until tomorrow's first stint to see how things pan out. The McLaren team will see this as a perfect opportunity to hit back at Ferrari with Kovalainen and Hamilton both with the chance to pressure Felipe Massa off the start line. We have seen Massa crumble under that sort of pressure before, but this is the track that he appears to be the most comfortable on so he should have enough in reserve to hold off the silver cars. We shall see...

Qualifying Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:27.617
02 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:27.808
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:27.923
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:27.936
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:28.390
06 M. Webber Red Bull 1:28.417
07 F. Alonso Renault 1:28.422
08 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.836
09 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:28.882
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:29.959
11 N. Rosberg Williams 1:27.012
12 R. Barrichello Honda 1:27.219
13 J. Button Honda 1:27.298
14 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:27.412
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:27.806
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:27.547
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:27.568
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:27.568
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:27.807
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:28.325 Read more!

Turkish Grand Prix: Friday Practice Two

Kimi Raikkonen showed no ill effects of his hampered running this morning by cruising to the top of the time sheets in the second Friday practice session. Things were desperately close at the top of the order this time out with Kimi edging out Hamilton by just 3 hundredths of a second, and Felipe Massa just a fraction behind the top two. The big surprise was that there were two British drivers in the top four, breaking the Ferrari-McLaren dominance.

David Coulthard was the man to raise eyebrows throughout the paddock with a fine lap to take fourth place. It was a remarkable improvement over his seventeenth place from this morning's session. However, the smiling faces were only on one side of the Red Bull Racing pit as Mark Webber binned his car on the exit of turn 6 early in the session, ripping the front end off and bringing out a red flag in the process. He ran a bit wide onto the bumpy run-off area and tried to keep his foot in, but evidently lost traction and the rear end got away from him.

He wasn't the only driver having difficulties with car stability in the high-speed corners, as nearly half the field came very close to dropping it at one point or another. The extra wide run-off areas at the Tilke designed circuit undoubtedly saved a lot of pricey carbon fibre from destruction, and saved lots of extra hours for the mechanics in the pit garages.

Both Renaults nearly lost it in the very first corner of the track, Alonso in particular had a miraculous save early in the session. Hamilton too was seen sawing away frantically at the wheel of his McLaren several times through turns 1 and 2. Rosberg cut across the track at turn 2 also at one point. Jenson Button wisely got out of the throttle and took to the run off area on the exit of the super fast turn 8 as he ran wide and the rear end got loose on him.

BMW's Robert Kubica was also seen bouncing across the track at one point, and it wasn't the greatest day all round for the German team. They are expecting to be right up on the pace of the Ferraris and McLarens this weekend, but have shown no signs of that so far. Nick Heidfeld was overheard on the team radio complaining of a lack of rear stability in the high speed corners. They will have to make a big improvement if they are to be in a position to fight for the top spots in tomorrow's all important qualifying.

Practice Two Times

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.543s
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.579s
3. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.682s
4. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m27.763s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m27.954s
6. KUBICA BMW 1m28.431s
7. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.619s
8. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m28.664s
9. ALONSO Renault 1m28.681s
10. HEIDFELD BMW 1m28.817s
11. BUTTON Honda 1m28.826s
12. GLOCK Toyota 1m28.849s
13. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.907s
14. FISICHELLA Force India 1m29.008s
15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m29.024s
16. PIQUET Renault 1m29.212s
17. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m29.462s
18. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m29.630s
19. WEBBER Red Bull 1m29.633s
20. SUTIL Force India 1m30.832s
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