Spa Francorchamps: Practice Sessions

Kimi Raikkonen dominated the first of this mornings free practice seasons, placing his Ferrari F2007 ahead of the pack at the top of the timing sheet. Unfortunately for Ferrari they, Kimi’s performance was overshadowed by his team mates, Felipe Massa, who crashed very early in the day. Massa went straight on at Rivage and nosed his car into the tyre barrier. However, the lap from Raikkonen would have bolstered the Ferrari team and his lap of 1m47.339s put him 0.5s clear of second placed driver Lewis Hamilton.

Fernando Alonso followed his team mate into third place, just a tenth down on the Brit and 0.05s up on Nick Heidfeld in fourth. Nico Rosberg led Robert Kubica into fifth while second Williams driver Alex Wurz finished his morning in seventh. Renault, Toyota, Red Bull and Honda hogged the mid-field pack while Super Aguri, Toro Rosso and Spyker filled in the remaining six places. Massa did not complete a flying lap and thus propped up the mornings timing sheet.

Free Practice One Times

Free Practice One Times

The afternoon session saw Fernando Alonso get to grips with the slightly revised circuit layout, and the Spaniard topped the sheets with his McLaren. Alonso managed his best lap early on, but Lewis Hamilton closed the gap considerable over the course of the ninety minutes. Felipe Massa was able to take part in the second session, his Ferrari having been mended, and the Brazilian ended up in third after a spirited run. Raikkonen followed Massa 0.2s behind.

Toyota made a surprising improvement after lunch, and Jarno Trulli popped his Japanese car into 5th while Ralf Schumacher followed suit in 6th, albeit 0.5s down on the Italian. BMW appeared to flounder a bit in the second part of free practice, and Kubica could only manage ninth place while Heidfeld ended his days work in eleventh. The revised Spyker’s appear to be working better as well, with Sakon Yamamoto feeling a little giddy up in seventeenth and Adrian Sutil behind in twentieth.

Formula One, F1, Belgian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Fernando Alonso, McLaren