Formula 1: Kimi Leads Second Practice At Istanbul
May 09, 2008
Shell
Kimi Raikkonen jumped to the top of the times in Istanbul Park in second practice for the Turkish Grand Prix after lapping his Ferrari in 1m 27.543s, but Lewis Hamilton ran him close for McLaren with 1m 27.579s, as P1 pacesetter Felipe Massa took third place on 1m 27.682s.
Finn was happy with his day’s work. “Everything felt fine,” he said. “I was on the pace straight away.”
“This afternoon we made some changes and we were quite competitive; we were quite close to the Ferraris.” Lewis Hamilton said. “I had a big oversteer moment on one of my quickest laps, losing two or three tenths of a second, but it looks like we are going to be quite competitive.
“We’re looking good for the race. Things got better and better, and in the last session we improved the car and I feel quite comfortable with the balance I’ve got now. We need to make some more subtle changes for tomorrow and I hope we will be even faster. But at least this weekend we seem to be very, very close to Ferrari, as we always are, but perhaps here we’re even closer than expected.”
Rain at lunchtime left the track slightly slippery initially, and after half an hour Mark Webber shunted his Red Bull head-on into the barriers in Turn Six after spinning. That brought out the red flag for a while as the wreckage was cleared away, but the Australian was unhurt. Soon the track dried out fully, and Raikkonen took charge with Massa chasing him, until Hamilton intervened late in the session.
Scot David Coulthard was fourth for Red Bull Racing. “I had no major problems,” he said. “We’ve seen quite a few cars going off the track today.”
Heikki Kovalainen confirmed he has no lingering ill-effects from Barcelona with fifth fastest for McLaren on 1m 27.954s.
Robert Kubica led the pursuit as the fastest man in the 1m 28s bracket, taking his BMW Sauber round in 1m 28.431s. He was chased by Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 28.619s), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 28.664s), Renault’s Fernando Alonso (1m 28.681s), BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (1m 28.817s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 28.826s), Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 28.849s) and Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 28.907s). Rosberg did one lap in 1m 28.351s, but it was subsequently disallowed as he missed the apex of Turn 10.
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