Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Kovalainen tops second Turkey practice

McLaren once again proved a factor in the second free practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix, as this time Heikki Kovalainen dominated the timesheets for much of the session

In a session where the top 16 cars were covered by less than 0.8s, Kovalainen moved to the top of the times a third of the way through.

But not before team-mate Lewis Hamilton - who had been quickest for much of the first session - and Kazuki Nakajima had enjoyed spells in P1.

Behind the Finn at that point, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica were within 0.215s, Nakajima fourth and Sebastian Vettel - who stopped at Turn 2 with a suspected driveshaft problem after half an hour - fifth.

Not much changed in the order during the session as teams worked through their programmes, other than two spins for Hamilton, who topped a long list of drivers that went the wrong side of the kerbs, and Ferrari's drivers complaining that they were not happy on the soft, option, green-walled Bridgestones.

In fact, the softer tyres proved to be slower in general across the board. Alonso bolted on a set with five minutes of the session to go and went quicker in the first sector, but the performance of his lap dropped off through the remaining two.

The double world champion tried again and looked to have stolen the top spot, but lost out to Kovalainen by 0.006s on his last lap.

Kubica remained in third place, bringing some smiles to the BMW garage.

Nakajima ended up fourth, having tripped over Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella in the final chicane following a bizarre incident where neither appeared to give room to the other.

Vettel was fifth, Jarno Trulli sixth, Nico Rosberg seventh and Rubens Barrichello the fastest of the Brawns in eighth.

Mark Webber and Nelson Piquet completed the top ten. Felipe Massa was the fastest Ferrari in 11th, ahead of world championship leader Jenson Button and Hamilton.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:28.841            37
 2.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:28.847  + 0.006   35
 3.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:29.056  + 0.215   35
 4.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:29.091  + 0.250   37
 5.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:29.202  + 0.361   4
 6.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:29.207  + 0.366   40
 7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:29.257  + 0.416   40
 8.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:29.305  + 0.464   34
 9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:29.383  + 0.542   39
10.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:29.401  + 0.560   38
11.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:29.416  + 0.575   37
12.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:29.430  + 0.589   32
13.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:29.435  + 0.594   31
14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:29.518  + 0.677   40
15.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:29.520  + 0.679   33
16.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:29.550  + 0.709   40
17.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:30.081  + 1.240   32
18.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:30.091  + 1.250   37
19.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:30.295  + 1.454   39
20.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:30.629  + 1.788   36

All Timing Unofficial

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Donington's legal dispute resolved
Next article Force India facing FOTA suspension

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe