Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time as McLaren dominated Friday afternoon practice at Fuji.
McLaren were only briefly headed during the session when the two Renaults vaulted up to first and second after 15 minutes, beating Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's initial times by a few fractions.
While Giancarlo Fisichella used the softer tyres for his 1:19.926 lap, teammate Heikki Kovalainen was running the hard compound when he outpaced the Italian by 0.030 seconds a few moments later.
Within seven minutes the McLarens had reclaimed the leading positions, with Hamilton lapping in 1:19.198 and then improving to 1:18.734 shortly afterwards.
Alonso remained slightly slower than his teammate on both runs, finishing the session on a 1:18.948.
The session saw significantly more activity than morning practice had, with even the front-runners taking to the track immediately and most completing longer than usual runs as they evaluated tyre performance on the unfamiliar track.
This meant that the majority of quick times were set early on before the field focused on race preparations.
Ferrari were not quite on McLaren's pace during this session, and both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen ran wide across the run-off areas on several occasions - Massa leaving the road twice on one lap. He took third, 0.749 seconds behind Hamilton and 0.231 seconds ahead of Raikkonen.
They were split by Jarno Trulli, who put in a headline-grabbing performance for circuit owners Toyota to end the day in fourth place.
The Renaults were edged back to sixth and seventh, ahead of David Coulthard and Trulli's teammate Ralf Schumacher, who had a half-spin at Turn 10.
BMW's Robert Kubica completed the top ten.
After his impressive morning performance, Spyker's Adrian Sutil starred again early on, holding seventh for the first half of the session. He was eventually edged back to 16th.
His teammate Sakon Yamamoto had a bizarre incident after 15 minutes when he had a spin in the final complex and was clipped by Rubens Barrichello's Honda as he tried to rejoin. It appeared that the Spyker had escaped damage, but its front wing then fell off as it arrived in its pit box.
Barrichello continued after the incident but struggled for speed all afternoon, remaining at the very bottom of the times until improving to 17th in the closing seconds.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.734 38
2. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.948 + 0.214 34
3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:19.483 + 0.749 36
4. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:19.711 + 0.977 35
5. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:19.714 + 0.980 29
6. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:19.789 + 1.055 40
7. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:19.926 + 1.192 39
8. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:19.949 + 1.215 33
9. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:19.969 + 1.235 40
10. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:20.069 + 1.335 45
11. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.069 + 1.335 35
12. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.233 + 1.499 37
13. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.270 + 1.536 43
14. Button Honda (B) 1:20.336 + 1.602 44
15. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:20.462 + 1.728 36
16. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:20.736 + 2.002 37
17. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:20.889 + 2.155 33
18. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:20.985 + 2.251 44
19. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:20.997 + 2.263 38
20. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:21.007 + 2.273 34
21. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:21.305 + 2.571 38
22. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:21.352 + 2.618 34
Source - http://www.autosport.com
No comments:
Post a Comment