Valencia, day 2: Raikkonen holds on

Raikkonen failed to improve on the searing pace he set during the morning session, but his best lap of 1m12.004s proved to be more than enough to keep him at the top of the pile. Wurz was 0.4s behind the Finn, but only managed 27 laps of the twisty Spanish track.

Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest non-McLaren, but the Williams star was the best part of a second behind Raikkonen. Jarno Trulli made a big improvement in the afternoon to set the fourth best time, demoting the impressive Giorgio Pantano to fifth.

Nevertheless the Italian, who handed over to fellow countryman Vitantonio Liuzzi for the afternoon session, was three tenths quicker than regular tester Marc Gene. Liuzzi, driving an F1 car for the first time, also did a good job, lapping in 1m14.519s despite having just 28 laps of running.


Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m12.004s 70
Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m12.419s 27
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m12.961s 67
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m13.890s 31
Giorgio Pantano Williams-BMW M 1m13.899s 31
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m14.148s 59
Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 1m14.345s 44
Vitantonio Liuzzi Williams-BMW M 1m14.519s 28
Matteo Bobbi Minardi-European M 1m16.649s 21
Sergey Zlobin Minardi-European M 1m19.750s

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2002 car