Kovalainen Quickest in Practice

Kovalainen was the fastest man on track after the drivers made their first timed lap, and he stayed at the top of the timesheets for all but one minute of the session. His fastest lap was 1:35.112, more than two tenths faster than Rosberg's.

New driver Toni Vilander had a baptism of fire, setting just one timed lap before spinning at turn two. Coloni teammate Mathias Lauda was off immediately after him, spinning through the gravel at the Lesmo corner and getting stuck in the gravel.

In the seventh minute Rosberg briefly ran fastest, but Kovalainen was able to immediately reply with a laptime one second faster than his championship rival, and was never headed again.

Rosberg and Speed's fastest laps were set on their final tour, getting close to the Finn's laptime but unable to match it, as a number of drivers spun off track with the session closing, including Hiroki Yoshimoto, Sergio Hernandez and Jose Maria Lopez.

With laptimes tumbling in the final minutes, the top seven drivers were split by just one second, with the top sixteen drivers separated by two seconds.

Pos  Driver       Team                Time     
 1.  Kovalainen   Arden               1:35:112    
 2.  Rosberg      ART                 1:35:346    + 0.234
 3.  Speed        iSport              1:35:497    + 0.385
 4.  Carroll      Super Nova          1:35:952    + 0.840
 5.  Lopez        DAMS                1:35:955    + 0.843
 6.  Piquet       Hitech Piquet       1:35:958    + 0.846
 7.  Pantano      Super Nova          1:36:159    + 1.047
 8.  Alvarez      Campos Racing       1:36:288    + 1.176
 9.  Hernandez    Campos Racing       1:36:307    + 1.195
10.  Jani         Racing Eng.         1:36:493    + 1.381
11.  Monfardini   Durango             1:36:590    + 1.478
12.  Garcia       Racing Eng.         1:36:611    + 1.499
13.  Lapierre     Arden               1:36:679    + 1.567
14.  Viso         BCN Comp.           1:36:730    + 1.618
15.  Yoshimoto    BCN Comp.           1:37:009    + 1.897
16.  Premat       ART                 1:37:103    + 1.991
17.  Artam        iSport              1:37:251    + 2.139
18.  Pla          DPR                 1:37:432    + 2.320
19.  Negrao       Hitech Piquet       1:37:505    + 2.393
20.  Mondini      DPR                 1:37:507    + 2.395
21.  Fauzy        DAMS                1:37:598    + 2.486
22.  Piccione     Durango             1:37:696    + 2.584
23.  Lauda        Coloni              1:39:775    + 4.663

All Timing Unofficial