Raikkonen Flies at Mugello - Day Two

Finn Kimi Raikkonen got close to breaking the Mugello track record on the second day of testing at the Italian circuit.

The McLaren driver, who joined the session today alongside teammate David Coulthard, was nearly eight tenths of a second faster than his closest rival, and only seven hundreds off the track record set by Italian test driver Luca Badoer earlier this year.

The Ferrari driver also took to the track today for the first time this week, working with the F2002 chassis on tyre testing for Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone. Scot Coulthard was also in action, finishing nearly a second behind Raikkonen in the second Mercedes-powered MP4-17.

Finn Mika Salo and Scot Allan McNish continued testing for the Toyota team after they kicked off a three-day programme on Tuesday. Salo was again the quickest of the two drivers from the Japanese squad, but he was more than 2.5 seconds off Raikkonen's pace.

"I am happy with my final day's work because we have found solutions to some problems we had in Imola, although it's a bit late now," said Salo. "Joking aside, we finished the aero tests that I started yesterday and did some work on traction control.

"We also used on my car some of the positive results that Allan found on mechanical grip, and we have made quite good progress."

Testing at Mugello will continue on Thursday.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:22.089 64 2. Badoer Ferrari (B) 1:22.817 71 3. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:22.996 69 4. Salo Toyota (M) 1:24.765 84 5. McNish Toyota (M) 1:25.335 61 All Timing Unofficial

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