Ferrari stay on top in practice 2 - France
Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen secured the top two positions in second practice to complete an encouraging start to Ferrari's French Grand Prix
Massa's time of 1:15.453 was only 0.035 seconds quicker than Raikkonen, who had topped the times in the morning as the Italian squad seemed to return to form following three unimpressive races.
American Scott Speed was a surprise third quickest for the Toro Rosso team, with his teammate Tonio Liuzzi posting the fifth fastest time of the day as the Italian squad completed their strongest performance of the year.
Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, hit by problems in the first session, had a trouble-free second practice, the McLaren driver finishing in fourth ahead of David Coulthard, who continued to show good form in the Red Bull Racing car.
Teammate Mark Webber continued to show Red Bull Racing still have work to do on the reliability side, the Australian pulling off with transmission-related problem with some 40 minutes of the session remaining.
World champion Fernando Alonso finished down in eight position. The Spaniard had a big moment near the end of the session, when he went off at the fast first corner, his car bouncing off the gravel.
The two-time champion managed to control his car and was able to return to the track. Four minutes later, Raikkonen also went off, the Finn spinning his car on the grass.
German Nick Heidfeld's session finished ahead of time after he suffered from back problems that forced him to leave his car to be treated. The BMW Sauber driver covered only 18 laps and finished down in 19th position.
Christijan Albers' session was also cut short, the Dutchman covering nine laps after seemingly damaging his car when he went off track.
Anthony Davidson and Liuzzi starred in one of the few incident of the session, the Super Aguri driver making contact with the Toro Rosso just as he was exciting his garage.
Davidson damaged his front wing, which needed to be replaced before the Briton returned to the track.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:15.453 38 2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:15.488 + 0.035 28 3. Speed Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:15.773 + 0.320 21 4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.780 + 0.327 36 5. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:15.952 + 0.499 40 6. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:15.958 + 0.505 36 7. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:16.003 + 0.550 39 8. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:16.049 + 0.596 32 9. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:16.162 + 0.709 25 10. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:16.184 + 0.731 41 11. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:16.205 + 0.752 43 12. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:16.236 + 0.783 42 13. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:16.260 + 0.807 38 14. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:16.285 + 0.832 46 15. Button Honda (B) 1:16.395 + 0.942 43 16. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:16.562 + 1.109 17 17. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:16.735 + 1.282 40 18. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:16.950 + 1.497 47 19. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:16.968 + 1.515 18 20. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:17.165 + 1.712 49 21. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:18.213 + 2.760 32 22. Albers Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:18.708 + 3.255 9
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments