GP – Free Practice 2: Räikkönen comes back strong

Kimi Räikkönen has just taken first place in the second free practice session at the Istanbul circuit, a position that was undoubtedly promised to him in the morning before a gearbox problem.

The Ferrari driver beats Lewis Hamilton from McLaren by just 0.036 seconds. The reigning world champion’s teammate, Felipe Massa, completes the podium ahead of the impressive David Coulthard (Red Bull) and Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren.

Having lost most of the morning session, Räikkönen wasted no time when the afternoon session began this time.

He was one of the first drivers to head out onto the track, which was still slightly damp after the drizzle during the lunch break in Istanbul. He stayed on top for 1 hour and 30 minutes as he set his time of 1’27”543 during his first fast lap and remained unbeaten for the rest of the session.

Hamilton came closer to this time by being faster than the Finn in the first sector. The use of his soft tires at the end of the session could have made the difference, but the Brit lost time in turn 8 and ultimately crossed the timing line with a delay of 0.036 seconds.

Behind, we find Massa who was slightly slower than his teammate by 0.139 seconds. Coulthard beats Kovalainen and they are fourth and fifth, respectively. The Scot was, at one point, third when he was running with his soft tires.

Robert Kubica takes sixth place in the BMW after experiencing a suspension problem during the morning session. Jarno Trulli’s Toyota finishes 7th while Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams is 8th.

The last places in the top ten were secured by Fernando Alonso for Renault (9th) and Kubica’s teammate, Nick Heidfeld (10th).

The session was briefly interrupted by a red flag (between 1:30 pm and 1:37 pm French time) when Mark Webber hit the safety barriers quite violently at the exit of turn 6. The Australian lost control of his Red Bull by clipping the curb and the grass area, then spun out and crashed on the other side of the track.

He came to a stop at the side of the track. The Red Bull was heavily damaged but Webber emerged unscathed and the security service was able to clear the debris in seven minutes.

This accident ended Mark Webber’s session, who finished in 19th place ahead of Adrian Sutil, who only ran 9 laps.

Timo Glock also encountered some problems at the end of these tests as he poorly negotiated turn 4. When trying to return to the track, he broke part of his front wing by bouncing off the curbs.

Sébastien Bourdais was fortunate to avoid any damage to his Toro Rosso as, like Webber, he went off at turn 6.

Free Practice 2 Results – 2008 Turkish GP