Friday, May 09, 2008
# posted by Rich @ 11:47 PM
2008 Formula 1 Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix: Friday Practice 2
After having basically sat out the whole of the morning session with a gearbox problem, world champion Kimi Raikkonen bounced back to set the fastest lap in Friday Practice 2, with a time of 1:27.542, narrowly beating Lewis Hamilton by 36 1/1000ths of a second. However, Hamilton's time was set on brand new Option (soft) tyres, whereas Raikkonen's was set on used Prime tyres. The second Ferrari of Felipe Massa was third fastest, over a tenth slower than Raikkonen, but the surprise of the session was David Coulthard, who finished the session fourth fastest, just over two tenths slower than Raikkonen. However, the fuel loads that the cars were running is unknown. Kovalainen, Kubica, Trulli, Nakajima, Alonso and Heidfeld rounded out the top ten.
The session started after a brief sprinkle of rain, which stopped just a minute into the session. Consequently the track was slightly damp at the beginning of the session and there were few runners in the first 20 minutes. One man who did run was Sebastien Bourdais, who continues his normal practice of putting in as many laps as possible as he can to try and learn the circuits.
Shortly after going out on track, which was probably still a little damp in places, Mark Webber lost control of his Red Bull car on the exit of turn 8, spun, and hit the inside wall head on. The impact was quite hefty - enough to rip off both front wheels - but the Australian climbed out of his car unharmed. The incident precipitated a red flag so that the debris could be cleared.
After the session resumed, a lot of cars looked like they were struggling in the slick conditions - getting sideways in the corners, running wide out of the turns and so on. None more so than Nelsinho Piquet, whose car seemed especially tail happy, especially in the turn 9/10 complex. Consequently, he was well off the pace in 16th place. His team mate Alonso was struggling too, and couldn't match his pace from the morning session - he would end the session in 9th place. Jenson Button also endured a poor session and, although he would better his morning time by a tenth of a second, he would finish the session in 11th place. The session was even worse for team mate Barrichello, who would finish the session 15th fastest.
Lap Times
The session started after a brief sprinkle of rain, which stopped just a minute into the session. Consequently the track was slightly damp at the beginning of the session and there were few runners in the first 20 minutes. One man who did run was Sebastien Bourdais, who continues his normal practice of putting in as many laps as possible as he can to try and learn the circuits.
Shortly after going out on track, which was probably still a little damp in places, Mark Webber lost control of his Red Bull car on the exit of turn 8, spun, and hit the inside wall head on. The impact was quite hefty - enough to rip off both front wheels - but the Australian climbed out of his car unharmed. The incident precipitated a red flag so that the debris could be cleared.
After the session resumed, a lot of cars looked like they were struggling in the slick conditions - getting sideways in the corners, running wide out of the turns and so on. None more so than Nelsinho Piquet, whose car seemed especially tail happy, especially in the turn 9/10 complex. Consequently, he was well off the pace in 16th place. His team mate Alonso was struggling too, and couldn't match his pace from the morning session - he would end the session in 9th place. Jenson Button also endured a poor session and, although he would better his morning time by a tenth of a second, he would finish the session in 11th place. The session was even worse for team mate Barrichello, who would finish the session 15th fastest.
Lap Times
| Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference | Pos. | Driver | Time | Difference |
| 1. | Raikkonen | 1:27.543 | 11. | Button | 1:28.826 | + 1.283 | |
| 2. | Hamilton | 1:27.579 | + 0.036 | 12. | Glock | 1:28.849 | + 1.306 |
| 3. | Massa | 1:27.682 | + 0.139 | 13. | Rosberg | 1:28.907 | + 1.364 |
| 4. | Coulthard | 1:27.763 | + 0.220 | 14. | Fisichella | 1:29.008 | + 1.465 |
| 5. | Kovalainen | 1:27.954 | + 0.411 | 15. | Barrichello | 1:29.024 | + 1.481 |
| 6. | Kubica | 1:28.431 | + 0.888 | 16. | Piquet | 1:29.212 | + 1.669 |
| 7. | Trulli | 1:28.619 | + 1.076 | 17. | Vettel | 1:29.462 | + 1.919 |
| 8. | Nakajima | 1:28.664 | + 1.121 | 18. | Bourdais | 1:29.630 | + 2.087 |
| 9. | Alonso | 1:28.681 | + 1.138 | 19. | Webber | 1:29.633 | + 2.090 |
| 10. | Heidfeld | 1:28.817 | + 1.274 | 20. | Sutil | 1:30.832 | + 3.289 |
Labels: Formula 1, Grand Prix, Turkey
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