Silverstone 2008: Friday Afternoon Practice

Heikki Kovalainen has gone fastest in the second free practice session at the British circuit Silverstone. In a session that continued the incident-packed element from the first, Red Bull Racing showed good pace with Mark Webber claiming second and retiring team mate David Coulthard went fourth. The duo were separated by Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren and Sebastian Vettel popped in another impressive lap to go sixth, improving on his seventh from the morning session.

Felipe Massa was forced to sit out for half of the 90 minute running while his Ferrari F2008 was being repaired from his earlier accident and could only fit in 18 laps. Kimi Raikkonen ran a conservative strategy in the sister Ferrari, completing 31 laps and going twelfth quickest. Ferrari weren’t the only team down in the tables though as Toyota had problems.

Timo Glock suffered a gearbox problem and ground to a halt coming out of Club, and Jarno Trulli exited the session in more spectacular fashion. Trulli’s rear wing on his TF108 departed the car on the run down to Stowe, pitching the car into a spin and clouting the barriers. Jarno is perfectly okay but as with Massa in the morning, the car took substantial damage.

Things clearly haven’t gone well for us today. It’s difficult to say what happened, I just lost the rear wing and went off. After that I was taken to the medical centre for a routine check but I am fine and cleared to return to the cockpit tomorrow. Jarno Trulli.

Toyota-powered Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima spun his car into the barriers on the exit of Abbey and suffered front wing and suspension damage. The Japanese rookie was able to get his car back to the pitlane and the mechanics set about mending it for tomorrow’s qualifying session. Kazuki’s team mate Nico Rosberg ran to a strong fifth though, adding some consolation to Williams’s start to the weekend.

And as the drivers did in France, the proposed new safety car rules were once again tried out as the cars toured back in after their final laps. There is currently no further news or comments from the drivers as of yet, but should anything become available it wil be reported on BlogF1.

Silverstone 2008: Friday Free Practice Two