Saturday practice - Ferrari edge ahead again 15 Sep 2007
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa gave Ferrari a small, but perhaps crucial, advantage again in the final practice session at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday morning.
The Finn lapped his F2007 in 1m 46.137s - the weekend's fastest lap thus far - to head Massa on 1m 46.388s. Right at the end Fernando Alonso’s 1m 46.507s usurped McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton, who did 1m 46.782s, for third.
Behind the top four, Heikki Kovalainen gave Renault hope with the fifth-fastest time of 1m 47.065s, chased by Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 47.218s), Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 47.251s), BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (1m 47.359s), Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher (1m 47.454s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 47.527s), Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault (1m 47.564s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 47.767s), David Coulthard for Red Bull (1m 47.806s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel (1m 47.838s) and Williams’ Alex Wurz (1m 47.902s). Yet again, the times in the midfield were extremely close.
Takuma Sato was a little happier with his Super Aguri’s set-up on his way to 1m 48.129s, which displaced Tonio Liuzzi’s 1m 48.163s for Toro Rosso to leave the Japanese driver 16th. Then came Spyker’s Adrian Sutil (1m 48.348s), Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 48.528s) and Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson (1m 48.955s).
Sakon Yamamoto lapped his Spyker in 1m 49.179s before stopping in Fagnes, while right at the back was Robert Kubica, whose BMW Sauber suffered an engine problem after only two laps and thus didn’t record a time. Worse still, the Pole will take a 10-place grid penalty as a result.
