Heikki Kovalainen set the pace in Friday’s second practice session ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
The Finnish McLaren driver was smooth and controlled throughout, setting a fastest lap time over half a second quicker than that of his nearest rival, Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
Home favourite Lewis Hamilton gave the Silverstone crowd something to cheer by setting the third fastest time in the other McLaren and Webber’s Scottish teammate David Coulthard was an impressive fourth on the timesheet.
Hamilton was quick early on and despite one skid onto the grass the 23-year-old Brit completed a solid, if unspectacular, day of testing with no drama.
World championship leader Felipe Massa sat out the first half of the afternoon as mechanics worked to repair the Ferrari he crashed in the first practice period of the day.
The Englishman lapped in 1m 20.543s to head Red Bull’s David Coulthard (1m 20.589s), Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 20.748s), Sebastian Vettel (again on strong form for Toro Rosso with 1m 20.805s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 20.929s), Massa (1m 20.943s) and Kazuki Nakajima (1m 20.985s). Vettel had one off-course moment at Stowe, which may still have been slippery after Alonso’s morning engine failure, while Nakajima also ran his Williams into the tyres at Vale, before limping back to the pits with suspension damage.
Rubens Barrichello completed the top 10 for Honda with 1m 21.002s, then came BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica (1m 21.023s), Raikkonen (1m 21.275s), Nick Heidfeld (1m 21.453s) in the second BMW, Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 21.472s), Alonso (1m 21.511s), Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 21.520s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 21.634s), Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 21.642s) and Force India’s Adrian Sutil (1m 21.756s). Fisichella went off at Stowe.
| 
|