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Raikkonen tops Saturday practice - Britain

Kimi Raikkonen continued his commanding British Grand Prix practice form by going fastest for Ferrari in the Saturday morning session at Silverstone

The session looked set to end with another Ferrari one-two until McLaren's Fernando Alonso usurped Felipe Massa from second in the closing moments.

Alonso's McLaren teammate and crowd favourite Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest.

Raikkonen was fastest for the majority of the session, setting a 1:20.278 on his first run after 20 minutes.

Alonso beat that time by 0.110 seconds a few minutes later, but Raikkonen soon responded with a 1:19.751 to comfortably reclaim the leading position. Although Alonso improved on his next outing, he remained 0.343 seconds adrift.

Massa a more eventful session than his teammate - catching a sideways slide through Becketts on his first run, and then going across the grass at Stowe later on. He improved to second with three minutes to go, but was then beaten by Alonso on the McLaren's final lap.

Hamilton never challenged for the top spot and ended up 0.593 seconds slower than Raikkonen in fourth.

Williams' Nico Rosberg repeated his Friday morning form to occupy fifth place, with his teammate Alex Wurz only four tenths of a second slower, but ten places further down the order, having had a quick spin. Just six tenths covered Rosberg in fifth, to David Coulthard in 18th.

Ralf Schumacher maintained his strong form to take sixth, with his Toyota teammate Jarno Trulli only 17th. The Italian gesticulated at Hamilton after an apparent blocking incident at the end of the session.

Toro Rosso again showed surprising speed in practice, as Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi leapt up to fifth and sixth places with 15 minutes remaining. They were shuffled down the order, but Liuzzi worked his way back up to seventh place, with Speed taking 13th.

Renault's Heikki Kovalainen, BMW's Nick Heidfeld and Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson completed the top ten.

Jenson Button returned to action after back pain forced him to sit out Friday's afternoon session. He had the track to himself for the first ten minutes as he worked to make up for lost mileage, but slipped down to 19th by the end of the hour.

Robert Kubica sat out much of the session while the BMW mechanics worked on his car in the garage. Although he rejoined near the end of the hour, he could only manage 16th.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:19.751           17
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:19.920 + 0.169   12
 3.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:19.969 + 0.218   17
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:20.344 + 0.593   12
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:20.666 + 0.915   17
 6.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:20.770 + 1.019   21
 7.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:20.876 + 1.125   21
 8.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:20.882 + 1.131   17
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:20.882 + 1.131   19
10.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:20.915 + 1.164   23
11.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:20.983 + 1.232   19
12.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:21.002 + 1.251   16
13.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:21.039 + 1.288   19
14.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:21.140 + 1.389   22
15.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:21.148 + 1.397   17
16.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:21.156 + 1.405   17
17.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:21.321 + 1.570   18
18.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:21.343 + 1.592   16
19.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:21.583 + 1.832   24
20.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:21.745 + 1.994   23
21.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:22.101 + 2.350   23
22.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:22.180 + 2.429   24

All timing unofficial

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