Practice Two - Hamilton replies for McLaren 24 Aug 2007
Lewis Hamilton set the pace in second practice for the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday afternoon, lapping his McLaren in 1m 28.469s to head Kimi Raikkonen, who took his Ferrari round Istanbul Park in 1m 28.762s. Raikkonen’s morning best of 1m 27.988s hence remained unbeaten.
As their team mates Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were sixth and fifth fastest respectively, it fell to the Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli to take third and fourth-fastest times. Schumacher lapped in 1m 28.773s, Trulli 1m 28.874s. Massa’s best was 1m 28.884s, Alonso’s 1m 28.947s, and Nico Rosberg was the only other driver to dip below 1m 29s with 1m 28.995s for Williams.
There was a lengthy delay partway through the session when it had to be red flagged because a drain cover had come loose in Turn 10; practice only resumed after it had been welded back down.
It was another session in which a number of drivers slid off the road: Hamilton did so four times, Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil three, while Sakon Yamamoto, Heikki Kovalainen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Raikkonen, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica also had moments. The only one to do any damage, however, was Anthony Davidson, who speared off the road in Turn Three and banged the nose of his Super Aguri hard enough into the tyre wall to detach the right front wheel. The Englishman was unharmed.
Outside the top seven, Kovalainen was fastest with 1m 29.025s for Renault, just ahead of Alex Wurz (1m 20.093s) in the Williams, Kubica (1m 29.368s) for BMW Sauber, David Coulthard (in a repaired Red Bull complete with new engine following his fire in the morning, with 1m 29.435s), Fisichella (1m 29.456s) for Renault, BMW Sauber’s Heidfeld (1m 29.792s), and Jenson Button (1m 29.945s) in the Honda.
In the other Honda Rubens Barrichello headed the next group with 1m 30.055s, ahead of Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato (1m 30.104s), Red Bull’s Webber (1m 30.315s), Davidson (1m 30.530s), the Toro Rossos of Tonio Liuzzi (1m 30.702s) and Sebastian Vettel (1m 30.801s) and then the Spykers. Sakon Yamamoto showed his potential by lapping his F8-VII in 1m 31.175s, right behind team mate Sutil’s 1m 31.153s.
