Practice Two - McLaren take control at Fuji
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso took their turn setting the fastest time as practice for the Japanese Grand Prix resumed at Fuji International Speedway on Friday afternoon. Hamilton clocked the quickest overall lap, a 1m 18.734s, but Alonso was close behind on 1m 18.948s.
Felipe Massa’s was the faster Ferrari with 1m 19.483s, but it would be unsafe to read too much into the discrepancy in lap times as teams habitually follow different programmes on the opening afternoon of the weekend.
Jarno Trulli made it a good session for Toyota with fourth fastest time in 1m 19.711s, narrowly edging out Kimi Raikkonen’s 1m 19.714s for Ferrari. Heikki Kovalainen was only a whisker slower, with 1m 19.789s for Renault ahead of team mate Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 19.926s), a happier David Coulthard (1m 19.949s for Red Bull) and Ralf Schumacher in the second Toyota (1m 19.969s).
The fact that Robert Kubica was only 10th with 1m 20.069s suggested that BMW Sauber were working purely on race pace, and his time was matched by Mark Webber’s Red Bull.
Williams lost pace compared with the morning session; Alex Wurz was 12th on 1m 20.233s from team mate Nico Rosberg on 1m 20.270s. Sadly, the latter needs his intended race engine changed, which means he will incur a 10-place grid penalty on Sunday afternoon.
Jenson Button had the leading Honda in 14th place on 1m 20.336s, chased by Nick Heidfeld (1m 20.462s for BMW Sauber), Adrian Sutil (again quick for Spyker on 1m 20.736s), Rubens Barrichello (who improved late for Honda to 1m 20.889s after an earlier minor collision with Spyker's Sakon Yamamoto in Turn 13 had delayed them both). Tonio Liuzzi narrowly headed Toro Rosso partner Sebastian Vettel, in 18th place on 1m 20.985s compared to the German’s 1m 20.997s.
At the back the Super Aguris of Anthony Davidson (1m 21.007s) and Takuma Sato (1m 21.352s) sandwiched Yamamoto’s Spyker (1m 21.305s).
