Author Topic: Kovalainen tops second Turkey practice  (Read 1720 times)

Offline fasteddy

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Kovalainen tops second Turkey practice
« on: June 05, 2009, 08:57:56 AM »
Courtesy of Autosport



By Simon Strang    Friday, June 5th 2009, 12:32 GMT

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, Turkish GPMcLaren once again proved a factor in the second free practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix, as this time Heikki Kovalainen dominated the timesheets for much of the session.

In a session where the top 16 cars were covered by less than 0.8s, Kovalainen moved to the top of the times a third of the way through.

But not before team-mate Lewis Hamilton - who had been quickest for much of the first session ? and Kazuki Nakajima had enjoyed spells in P1.

Behind the Finn at that point, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica were within 0.215s, Nakajima fourth and Sebastian Vettel - who stopped at Turn 2 with a suspected driveshaft problem after half an hour - fifth.

Not much changed in the order during the session as teams worked through their programmes, other than two spins for Hamilton, who topped a long list of drivers that went the wrong side of the kerbs, and Ferrari's drivers complaining that they were not happy on the soft, option, green-walled Bridgestones.

In fact, the softer tyres proved to be slower in general across the board. Alonso bolted on a set with five minutes of the session to go and went quicker in the first sector, but the performance of his lap dropped off through the remaining two.

The double world champion tried again and looked to have stolen the top spot, but lost out to Kovalainen by 0.006s on his last lap.

Kubica remained in third place, bringing some smiles to the BMW garage.

Nakajima ended up fourth, having tripped over Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella in the final chicane following a bizarre incident where neither appeared to give room to the other.

Vettel was fifth, Jarno Trulli sixth, Nico Rosberg seventh and Rubens Barrichello the fastest of the Brawns in eighth.

Mark Webber and Nelson Piquet completed the top ten. Felipe Massa was the fastest Ferrari in 11th, ahead of world championship leader Jenson Button and Hamilton.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:28.841            37
 2.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:28.847  + 0.006   35
 3.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:29.056  + 0.215   35
 4.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:29.091  + 0.250   37
 5.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:29.202  + 0.361   4
 6.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:29.207  + 0.366   40
 7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:29.257  + 0.416   40
 8.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:29.305  + 0.464   34
 9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:29.383  + 0.542   39
10.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:29.401  + 0.560   38
11.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:29.416  + 0.575   37
12.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:29.430  + 0.589   32
13.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:29.435  + 0.594   31
14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:29.518  + 0.677   40
15.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:29.520  + 0.679   33
16.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:29.550  + 0.709   40
17.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:30.081  + 1.240   32
18.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:30.091  + 1.250   37
19.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:30.295  + 1.454   39
20.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:30.629  + 1.788   36

All Timing Unofficial

Offline fasteddy

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Re: Kovalainen tops second Turkey practice
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2009, 09:31:51 AM »
McLaren drivers surprised by pace

By Edd Straw    Friday, June 5th 2009, 14:55 GMT

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren, Turkish GPHeikki Kovalainen is confident that the aerodynamic modifications introduced by McLaren for the Turkish Grand Prix have improved the team's performance after topping the second free practice session.

The team has introduced some minor tweaks to its floor, which it ran for the first time today and the Finn is confident that McLaren has taken a step forward.

"The most important thing is that the car is working fine," said Kovalainen. "The balance is surprisingly good.

"We've made another step forward so everybody in the team can be pleased about today."

Despite the improvements, Kovalainen warned that getting into the top 10 in qualifying is still a challenge for the McLaren MP4-24.

"I still think it will be a tough fight to get into the top 10 tomorrow. "We'll be trying the maximum overnight so that we can join the fight.

"It's very encouraging that we've made another step forward."

Kovalainen's team-mate, world champion Lewis Hamilton, backed up his impressions, adding that he was surprised by the improvement made.

Hamilton ended the second free practice session in 13th place, less than six-tenths of a second off Kovalainen.

"Before we arrived here, we thought we'd probably have the same sort of pace that we had in Barcelona," said Hamilton. "But it seems we're a little bit faster than anticipated.

"We have a little instability on the ext of some corners, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the pace of the car today."