FP2: Alonso Honors French Fans

Fernando Alonso finishes on top in the second practice session for the French Grand Prix taking place at Magny-Cours. It was the soft tires that allowed Renault to shine.

After leading in the morning, Felipe Massa ended up setting the second-fastest time with his Ferrari, ahead of his teammate Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren.

Sebastian Vettel finishes in an impressive fifth place for Toro Rosso, while Robert Kubica (BMW) is sixth and Hamilton’s teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, is seventh.

This session turned out to be much more interesting in terms of race level and competition. Additionally, the number of incidents increased compared to the morning due to the hot weather, which saw many drivers sliding on the gravel or asphalt.

The two McLarens and the two Ferraris took turns in the lead during the first half of the session with Hamilton being the first of the top contenders to set a fast time after ten minutes. He remained in first place for fifteen minutes before being overtaken by Massa, then Kovalainen and Räikkönen afterwards.

But Massa responded with a lap time of 1’15”854 midway through the session. That was enough to stay in the lead until Alonso and his soft tires improved this time by 0.076 seconds with seven minutes remaining.

Alonso made a small mistake in a chicane, but the former world champion is far from being the only driver to have made an error.

Hamilton, Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Massa all went off the track into the gravel at Estoril. The McLaren driver had to change his front wing.

Vettel was fast all afternoon with his soft tires to beat Kubica and Kovalainen.

Kubica’s teammate at BMW, Nick Heidfeld is eighth, ahead of Nelson Piquet and Red Bull driver David Coulthard.