Practice Two - Hamilton splits Ferraris as Webber shunts
Kimi Raikkonen jumped to the top of the times in Istanbul Park in Friday afternoon’s second practice for the Turkish Grand Prix after lapping his Ferrari in 1m 27.543s, but Lewis Hamilton ran him close for McLaren with 1m 27.579s, as P1 pacesetter Felipe Massa took third place on 1m 27.682s.
Rain at lunchtime left the track slightly slippery initially, and after half an hour Mark Webber shunted his Red Bull head-on into the barriers in Turn Six after spinning. That brought out the red flag for a while as the wreckage was cleared away, but the Australian was unhurt. Soon the track dried out fully, and Raikkonen took charge with Massa chasing him, until Hamilton intervened late in the session.
David Coulthard made it a sweet-bitter afternoon for Red Bull by taking the fourth-fastest time on 1m 27.763s, and Heikki Kovalainen confirmed he has no lingering ill-effects from Barcelona with fifth fastest for McLaren on 1m 27.954s.
Robert Kubica led the pursuit as the fastest man in the 1m 28s bracket, taking his BMW Sauber round in 1m 28.431s. He was chased by Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 28.619s), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 28.664s), Renault’s Fernando Alonso (1m 28.681s), BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (1m 28.817s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 28.826s), Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 28.849s) and Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 28.907s). Rosberg did one lap in 1m 28.351s, but it was subsequently disallowed as he missed the apex of Turn 10.
Giancarlo Fisichella wheeled his Force India round in 1m 29.008s, to lead Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 29.024s), Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 29.212s), the Toro Rossos of Sebastian Vettel (1m 29.462s) and Sebastien Bourdais (1m 29.630s), Webber (1m 29.633s) and Force India’s Adrian Sutil (1m 30.832s).
Again there was a rash of off-course moments. Besides Webber, Rosberg, Piquet, Heidfeld, Hamilton, Bourdais, Button and Glock all either spun or ran wide, but only the Australian damaged his car.
