Kovalainen goes fastest at Silverstone

The McLaren driver, second fastest behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa yesterday, posted a best time of 1:20.015 on day which started with an overcast sky followed by a brief shower.

Conditions, however, improved later and the teams were able to carry out their programmes as normal, despite strong gusts of wind.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli was second quickest on his return to action following his podium finish at the French Grand Prix. The Italian driver had a productive session after covering 95 laps.

"Today's main focus was preparation for the British Grand Prix and it was a good day," said Trulli. "We managed to do a lot of laps and we learned several useful things. It all went smoothly and we ran without any real issues. There was a lot of gusting wind out there today, which can make direct comparisons difficult.

"Still, we made some progress with our set-up and aerodynamics programme. We are obviously looking to build on our result at last Sunday's French Grand Prix. Now I hope we will be in good shape for another strong race here next week."

Trulli was followed by Nico Rosberg in the Williams and Nelsinho Piquet in the Renault, who also had a good day despite the windy conditions.

"The track conditions were better than yesterday, although it was quite windy and that made it difficult to be consistent," said Piquet. "But this is not unusual for Silverstone and it was good experience to run in these conditions as we can expect similar weather for the race.

"Our programme was based around improving the set-up of the car and general race preparation, which went well. I'm now looking forward to the race here next week."

Yesterday's pace-setter Massa finished down in seventh place, ahead of Mark Webber and Jenson Button, the busiest man on track with 106 laps covered.

Giancarlo Fisichella was forced to stop testing early after crashing heavily when he was caught out by gust of wind at the Becketts corner.

The Italian, whose Force India team introduced an engine cover fin for their car today, was uninjured but had to be taken to the medical centre for checks.

"It's a real shame we couldn't do more running in the afternoon as this morning it was all looking quite good," said Fisichella. "The car felt quicker even though the balance was not so good because of the high winds.

"Unfortunately I just got caught out by a change in grip and balance going through Becketts and went off the track and hit the barriers. I wasn't hurt at all, but I did not take my hands off the wheel and they had to do some checks to make sure my wrist was OK."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver      Team                     Time      Laps
 1.  Kovalainen  McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:20.015   72
 2.  Trulli      Toyota              (B)  1:20.391   95
 3.  Rosberg     Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:20.624   74
 4.  Piquet      Renault             (B)  1:20.787   87
 5.  Vettel      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:20.795   84
 6.  Kubica      BMW-Sauber          (B)  1:20.982   67
 7.  Massa       Ferrari             (B)  1:21.069   69
 8.  Webber      Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:21.170   39
 8.  Button      Honda               (B)  1:21.445  106
10.  Fisichella  Force India         (B)  1:21.583   52

All Timing Unofficial