GP – Free Practice 2: Hamilton Turns on the Turbo!
After the first free practice session, marked by a significant performance gap between the top teams and the rest of the 2008 field, the gaps narrowed during the second session of the day in Melbourne, Australia. Ahead of the first Grand Prix of the season, Hamilton secured the best performance with the MP4/23 McLaren, nearly […]
After the first free practice session, marked by a significant performance gap between the top teams and the rest of the 2008 field, the gaps narrowed during the second session of the day in Melbourne, Australia. Ahead of the first Grand Prix of the season, Hamilton secured the best performance with the MP4/23 McLaren, nearly a second ahead of the surprising Red Bull of Mark Webber, at home!
See the live – Free Practice 2
Kimi Räikkönen delivered the best performance of the day during the first free practice, but the Finnish driver couldn’t do as well in this session, finishing only 6th after mainly focusing on long runs of more than 10 laps.
His teammate at Ferrari, Felipe Massa, holds the same position as this morning with the third fastest time. He fought throughout the session with the other McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, who finished 4th, four hundredths behind the Brazilian, before running off the track and retiring during the session, causing a red flag at turn 12.
Red Bull also confirms its strength at the start of the year, with David Coulthard’s good 5th fastest time.
Toyota shows strong performances on this first day. Trulli has significantly improved his time since the first free practice and places Toyota in 7th position, Glock is also in the top 10. Sutil, his teammate, is 17th.
Between the two Japanese single-seaters is the Williams driver Rosberg, recovered from the morning’s problems, as well as the always surprising Force India of Fisichella, this time indeed in the top 10.
The Renaults are much further back than this morning. Alonso is only 13th, just like the BMW drivers. The Frenchman, Bourdais, places his Toro Rosso behind that of his teammate, in 20th position, while the Super-Aguri bring up the rear.
Many incidents are to be regretted during this session with a track still dusty and the absence of traction control on the cars: Heidfeld, Adrian Sutil, Coulthard, Nakajima, Rosberg, Fisichella, Alonso, and Takuma Sato all went off track at least once, without any serious consequences nonetheless.
2008 Australian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 – Results
