De Oliveira tops practice 2
Japanese Formula Three Champion Joao Paolo de Oliveira led the way during an incident-filled second free practice session for the Macau Grand Prix to edge out Briton Mike Conway and Frenchman Loic Duval
The Brazilian traded times at the top of the timesheets with several other drivers before eventually putting in his best effort with 16 minutes of the session remaining.
"It is looking good," he said. "We have made a few set-up changes since yesterday and I am quite happy because my lap time without a tow is pretty close to what I could achieve with one. I also have got new tyres for this afternoon."
De Oliveira's rivals' hopes of beating his best time were eventually wrecked by three separate accidents, which brought out the red flag with five minutes remaining.
Christian Bakkerud spun backwards into the barriers at Dona Maria Bend, before Steven Kane damaged the left rear corner of his car after clouting the tyre wall at Policia. At almost the same time Bruno Senna hit the barriers with the right hand side of his car.
Conway continued to impress on his first visit to Macau as he set the second quickest time. "That was good," said the Manor Motorsport driver.
"I slept on things last night and was able to do a good time today - the speed is coming from me. I'm quite optimistic for this afternoon because I should get more time from new tyres."
Behind third fastest Duval, provisional pole position man Robert Kubica admitted that he had taken it easy in the session.
"It's only free practice so there is no point taking any risks," said the Carlin Motorsport driver. "We made a few changes to the car overnight and my tyres are clearly past their best so we should be okay with new ones for qualifying."
Stephen Jelley touched the barriers at Lisboa but did not suffer any major damage to his car, while birthday boy Paolo Montin reported no repeat of the gearbox problems that stopped him in qualifying yesterday.
Pos Driver Make-Engine Time Laps 1. Joao de Oliveira Dallara Toyota-Tom's 2:12.708 9 2. Mike Conway Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:12.749 + 0.041 9 3. Loic Duval Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:13.010 + 0.302 9 4. Robert Kubica Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:13.463 + 0.755 9 5. Franck Perera Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:13.535 + 0.827 9 6. Lucas Di Grassi Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:13.720 + 1.012 9 7. Naoki Yokomizo Dallara Nissan-Tomei 2:13.876 + 1.168 8 8. Dan Clarke Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:13.979 + 1.271 9 9. Charlie Kimball Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:14.228 + 1.520 9 10. Paolo Montin Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:14.274 + 1.566 9 11. Christian Bakkerud Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:14.297 + 1.589 4 12. Fabio Carbone SLC Opel-Spiess 2:14.305 + 1.597 8 13. Sebastian Vettel Dallara Mercedes-HWA 2:14.355 + 1.647 7 14. Guillaume Moreau Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:14.536 + 1.828 8 15. Kazuki Nakajima Dallara Toyota-Tom's 2:14.551 + 1.843 9 16. Danny Watts Dallara Toyota-Tom's 2:15.003 + 2.295 8 17. Romain Grosjean Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:15.238 + 2.530 9 18. Karl Reindler Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:15.580 + 2.872 9 19. Stephen Jelley Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:15.739 + 3.031 9 20. Kohei Hirate Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:15.796 + 3.088 8 21. Bruno Senna Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:15.828 + 3.120 6 22. Daisuke Ikeda Dallara Toyota-Tom's 2:16.734 + 4.026 9 23. Taku Bamba Dallara Toyota-Tom's 2:17.288 + 4.580 9 24. Steven Kane Lola Honda-Mugen/NB 2:17.850 + 5.142 5 25. Rodolfo Avila Dallara Mercedes HWA 2:18.723 + 6.015 9 26. Michael Ho Dallara Toyota-Tom's 2:18.791 + 6.083 9 27. Fillip Salaquarda Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:19.173 + 6.465 7 28. Cheong Lou Meng Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:20.005 + 7.297 9 29. Lei Kit Meng Dallara Opel-Spiess 2:26.787 + 14.079 7 30. Jo Merszei Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB 2:30.210 + 17.502 8
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