F1 - Raikkonen fights back in practice 2

The world champion overcame his morning gearbox troubles

Kimi Raikkonen put his morning gearbox problem behind him to head the field in the second practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix.

The world champion completed just three laps in session one after Ferrari was forced to change his gearbox, but typically he didn’t let that setback affect his preparations in the afternoon.

His best time of 1m27.543s, set 20 minutes into the 90-minute session, was just 0.036s quicker than his McLaren rival Lewis Hamilton.

But intriguingly ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session, while Raikkonen set his best time at the end of a series of runs on hard-compound tyres, Hamilton’s came on his first lap on the softer rubber.

The Briton’s late improvement bumped the second Ferrari and morning pacesetter Felipe Massa down to third – although the Istanbul Park specialist was just over a tenth away from his team-mate and his morning benchmark stood as the fastest time of the day.

Red Bull’s David Coulthard made the biggest improvement on the ‘option’ tyres late on to slot into a competitive fourth, just 0.2s away from Raikkonen.

The Scot’s last-gasp lap put him ahead of both McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and BMW’s Robert Kubica on the timesheet.

Coulthard's team-mate Mark Webber didn't have such a happy time, crashing his RB4 into a barrier exiting turn six half an hour in.

The Australian understeered coming out of turn five, putting him off-line through the next left-hander and causing him to stray two wheels onto the astroturf on the exit.


Jenson Button lapped a promising 11th fastest time

That sent his RB4 into a spin and it slithered across the track hitting the barrier head-on, with the impact shattering his front suspension and leaving both front wheels hanging off their tethers.

His car came to rest back on the circuit and he climbed out unaided, but the crash brought out the red flag for seven minutes while marshals cleared the stricken Red Bull and scattered carbon fibre.

Webber’s smash brought an end to the first flurry of activity in the session after it once again took time to burst into life.

A rain shower prior to the session meant the circuit was damp at the start, ensuring a lack of initial track action and even cooler temperatures.

Indeed only Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais and Raikkonen bothered to complete sighter laps on the intermediate rubber, with the STR driver’s time 10 seconds off the morning pace.

When the track did dry after 20 minutes, Raikkonen was naturally keen to make up for lost time and duly became the first front-runner to complete a timed lap, posting a 1m29.235s.

He quickly got up to a more competitive pace though, upping the ante to 1m27.812s before settling for his 1m27.543s before Webber’s crash.

After the red flag period, the Finn’s team-mate Massa, who had initially clocked a lap some two tenths slower, set about trying to reassert his supremacy.

But despite switching to the softer compound earlier, the Brazilian couldn’t topple his team-mate with the tyres not hanging on enough to complete a strong final sector.

Coulthard was the first driver to benefit from the switch to the medium tyres and immediately vaulted up to fifth at the hour mark with a 1m28.127s lap.


Alonso put his renault between the two McLarens

Hamilton also looked set to benefit on his first run on option rubber with three minutes remaining in the session, but a big moment in the middle of the super-fast turn eight meant he couldn’t quite beat Raikkonen.

Behind the top six, Jarno Trulli completed a strong afternoon to slot into seventh while Williams rookie Kazuki Nakajima continued to impress with another top eight placing.

Fernando Alonso couldn’t match his morning exploits and ended the afternoon ninth in his Renault, while Nick Heidfeld was 10th in the second BMW.

Jenson Button set himself up for a top-10 challenge over the weekend by putting himself right in the midfield battle in 11th.

Force India had a mixed afternoon, with Giancarlo Fisichella showing encouraging pace in 14th but Adrian Sutil at the bottom of the pile after the team couldn’t get his VJM01 to start following an initial nine-lap run.

Turkish GP free practice session two times
1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.543s
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.579s
3. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.682s
4. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m27.763s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m27.954s
6. KUBICA BMW 1m28.431s
7. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.619s
8. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m28.664s
9. ALONSO Renault 1m28.681s
10. HEIDFELD BMW 1m28.817s
11. BUTTON Honda 1m28.826s
12. GLOCK Toyota 1m28.849s
13. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.907s
14. FISICHELLA Force India 1m29.008s
15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m29.024s
16. PIQUET Renault 1m29.212s
17. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m29.462s
18. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m29.630s
19. WEBBER Red Bull 1m29.633s
20. SUTIL Force India 1m30.832s

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