Lewis Hamilton took to the top of the timing sheets during Friday Practice session one, going 0.2s faster than the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso took third from the BMWs of Nick Heidfeld and fifth for Robert Kubica. The second Ferrari of Felipe Massa could only manage sixth fastest of the morning. Ralf Schumacher continued to show his improved form by setting the seventh quickest time, and newcomer Markus Winkelhock propped up the list in 22nd and last place.

Free Practice One Times

Practice session two saw Kimi take control and go top, edging out Lewis Hamilton by a tenth. Felipe Massa went third ahead of Fernando Alonso who managed to keep both Toyota’s at bay. Interestingly, the second session saw an improvment in times from the front runners, but Markus Winkelhock went a couple of tenths slower, as did both BMWs. However, the German teams times were strong in the morning run, so it is likely that they weree trying different settings or fuel loads.

Another reason for the possible decline in times from a few of the teams could relate to the circuit being green following a thunderstorm that troubled the GP2 race that ran in between the sessions, and even Raikkonen took a trip across the grass.

Free Practice Two Times