By Matt Beer Friday, July 18th 2008, 13:32 GMT
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was fastest again in second practice at Hockenheim - this time beating the Ferraris by over six tenths of a second in dry weather.
Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen took second and third, ahead of Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen.
After the morning rain, the second session saw completely dry track conditions, and was comparatively uneventful given the frenetic activity of the damp opening practice.
Hamilton had a near-miss with the slowing Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais on his first run before setting a benchmark time of 1:15.817, which proved good enough to keep the Briton at the head of the pack for much of the rest of the session.
Massa edged increasingly close to the McLaren's time, though, and after 50 minutes he edged ahead with a 1:15.722 lap. Hamilton responded with a 1:15.739 shortly afterwards - which wasn't quite sufficient to topple the Ferrari - while Massa fell 0.011 seconds shy of his existing time when he re-emerged on soft tyres in the final minutes.
But Hamilton's last run of the afternoon, also on softs, proved much more productive, as he produced a 1:15.025 with one minute to go and put himself 0.697 seconds clear of Massa.
Raikkonen looked set to beat Massa to second until losing time in the stadium section on his best lap, so had to settle for third ahead of Kovalainen.
Mark Webber put a slightly troubled afternoon behind him to take a promising fifth for Red Bull with his last lap.
Having earlier been delayed by a clutch problem in the garage and then a trip over the gravel at the final corner, he vaulted up on the order on soft tyres in the closing seconds, pushing long-time 'best of the rest' man Fernando Alonso (Renault) down to sixth.
Williams's Nico Rosberg was seventh, ahead of the two BMWs, with Robert Kubica recovering from his morning crash to outpace Nick Heidfeld. David Coulthard completed the top ten in the second Red Bull.
Sebastian Vettel was as high as third for Toro Rosso early in the session, but ultimately slipped back to 11th. His teammate Bourdais again lost mileage to technical problems and was 18th.
In a largely serene session, Timo Glock proved some entertainment by getting his Toyota briefly airborne in a trip over the grass, while Rubens Barrichello spun his Honda at both the first corner and the Spitzkehre.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.025 37
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:15.722 + 0.697 31
3. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:15.760 + 0.735 34
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:15.990 + 0.965 37
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:16.017 + 0.992 25
6. Alonso Renault (B) 1:16.230 + 1.205 38
7. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:16.355 + 1.330 41
8. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:16.363 + 1.338 36
9. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:16.377 + 1.352 40
10. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:16.378 + 1.353 35
11. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:16.422 + 1.397 41
12. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:16.530 + 1.505 45
13. Button Honda (B) 1:16.542 + 1.517 38
14. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:16.677 + 1.652 28
15. Piquet Renault (B) 1:16.734 + 1.709 42
16. Glock Toyota (B) 1:16.781 + 1.756 44
17. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:16.829 + 1.804 21
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:16.860 + 1.835 14
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:17.008 + 1.983 39
20. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:17.047 + 2.022 37
All Timing Unofficial
