Ferrari duo quickest in practice 1 - Italy

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By Matt Beer Friday, September 7th 2007, 09:30 GMT


Ferrari began their home Grand Prix weekend in the ideal fashion by taking a one-two in the first free practice session at Monza.

Kimi Raikkonen moved to the top of the timing screens with his first flying lap halfway through the 90 minutes, and remained at the head of the field for the rest of the morning.

His 1:22.446 lap was 0.144 seconds faster than teammate Felipe Massa's best effort.

McLaren had a more difficult morning, although by the end of the session third-placed Lewis Hamilton was just 0.028 seconds slower than Massa.

The championship leader had led the way briefly before Raikkonen emerged, and managed to stay within two tenths of the Ferraris for most of practice, although his penultimate run was interrupted by a spin at the first chicane.

Fernando Alonso missed much of the session after reporting a misfire on his installation laps. He finally joined the action in the final half hour, but took several trips across the new run-off at the Roggia chicane and also had a spin at the same place.

After lapping seven tenths of a second off the pace initially, Alonso ultimately improved to within 0.394 seconds of Raikkonen with his last lap.

Williams' Nico Rosberg was the fastest driver outside the Ferrari/McLaren quartet once again, but was a second off the pace in fifth place.

Jenson Button showed good form for Honda as he completed the top six, with teammate Rubens Barrichello jumping to 12th late on having languished in the bottom three for much of the morning.

Giancarlo Fisichella took seventh for Renault, with the BMWs eighth and ninth ahead of early pacesetter Jarno Trulli's Toyota.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:22.446            20
 2.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:22.590  + 0.144   17
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:22.618  + 0.172   18
 4.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:22.840  + 0.394   12
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.472  + 1.026   21
 6.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:23.668  + 1.222   21
 7.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:23.671  + 1.225   22
 8.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:23.703  + 1.257   22
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:23.886  + 1.440   17
10.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:23.965  + 1.519   29
11.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:24.076  + 1.630   21
12.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:24.564  + 2.118   19
13.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:24.587  + 2.141   15
14.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:24.595  + 2.149   22
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:24.660  + 2.214   20
16.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:24.689  + 2.243   29
17.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:24.694  + 2.248   17
18.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:24.810  + 2.364   19
19.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:25.130  + 2.684   24
20.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:25.439  + 2.993   25
21.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:25.448  + 3.002   25
22.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:25.762  + 3.316   25

[fasteddy]

McLaren pair on top in practice 2 - Italy

By Matt Beer Friday, September 7th 2007, 13:31 GMT


Fernando Alonso dominated the Friday afternoon practice session at Monza, lapping eight tenths of a second clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Having missed much of the morning courtesy of a misfire, the McLaren driver took to the track early in the second session and soon established himself at the end of the times.

A mid-session run on soft tyres saw Alonso produce the 1:22.386 that would stand as the day's fastest lap, and even when the rest of the field switched to softs for the final runs, the world champion's 0.823 second advantage remained intact.

After their commanding morning performance, Ferrari had a less successful afternoon.

Felipe Massa could only manage sixth, 1.3 seconds off the pace and a second shy of his first session times. The Brazilian also had a spin at the Roggia chicane, with Alonso having to take to the revised run-off to avoid him.

Kimi Raikkonen was only eighth quickest, having been forced to sit out most of the session when he struck hydraulic problems after just five laps. He rejoined to complete a further seven laps right at the end of the 90 minutes.

Ferrari's problems allowed Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella to take third, despite some worrying clouds of black smoke from his brakes during the afternoon - a trait not seen to the same extent on any other car.

Robert Kubica was fourth fastest for BMW, ahead of Nico Rosberg's Williams, with Nick Heidfeld splitting the Ferraris in seventh in the second BMW.

Heikki Kovalainen and Alex Wurz completed the top ten.

Aside from a plethora of minor trips across the chicanes, the only notable incident of the session was the red flag to retrieve Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri.

The Briton had come to a halt on the grass between the Lesmos, and with the marshals unable to retrieve the car safely, the session had to be halted for nine minutes.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:22.386            30
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:23.209  + 0.823   33
 3.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:23.584  + 1.198   38
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:23.599  + 1.213   44
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.679  + 1.293   33
 6.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:23.722  + 1.336   27
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:23.821  + 1.435   38
 8.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:23.833  + 1.447   12
 9.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:23.848  + 1.462   32
10.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.881  + 1.495   32
11.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:23.919  + 1.533   39
12.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:23.922  + 1.536   29
13.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:24.137  + 1.751   36
14.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:24.328  + 1.942   31
15.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:24.462  + 2.076   40
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:24.605  + 2.219   31
17.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:25.328  + 2.942   27
18.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:25.459  + 3.073   36
19.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:25.531  + 3.145   24
20.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:25.567  + 3.181   26
21.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:25.863  + 3.477   40
22.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:26.021  + 3.635    6

[fasteddy]

Hamilton determined to defeat Ferrari

By Alan Baldwin Friday, September 7th 2007, 08:17 GMT


Lewis Hamilton says McLaren with do their utmost to beat Ferrari in the Italian team's home race this weekend as the perfect riposte to allegations of spying against the Formula One leaders.

"Beating Ferrari on their home ground has got to be a huge blow to their whole team and that would make the (McLaren) team extremely happy," the 22-year-old championship frontrunner told British reporters at Monza.

"For me it would be a great feeling to do that because of what they are putting (our) team through.

"I know my team, I know the people here and I think we are being unfairly treated. We'll do our talking on the track," added the Briton.

Hamilton leads double world champion teammate Fernando Alonso by five points with five races remaining.

Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa is third, 10 points behind Spaniard Alonso, with Kimi Raikkonen a further point adrift.

Ferrari won the previous Turkish Grand Prix, with Massa leading Raikkonen in a one-two finish, and have been triumphant four times in the last five years at Monza.

They are now just 11 points behind McLaren in the constructors' championship.

McLaren are due to appear before the world governing body in Paris on Thursday in a hearing that could wreck their championship hopes if new evidence shows they benefited from Ferrari technical information in the possession of suspended chief designer Mike Coughlan earlier in the season.

The team have denied incorporating any Ferrari data on their car and escaped sanction in July when the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) ruled there was insufficient evidence.

However, the FIA World Motor Sport Council warned then that the team could be kicked out of this and next year's championship if new evidence emerged against them.

The FIA said on Wednesday there was new evidence and the Monza paddock has been swept by speculation about the nature and source of it.

While some media reports have referred to alleged emails between Alonso and McLaren's Spanish test driver Pedro de la Rosa, the champion told Spanish state radio on Thursday that McLaren had nothing to fear.

"If they penalise the team, they penalise me. I'm part of the team and we share the problem," he said.

"We're here to win... we're leading and there's not a single person in the team who thinks they're going to penalise us or that anything is going to happen to us."

[fasteddy]

Hamilton seeking more speed

By Jonathan Noble Friday, September 7th 2007, 14:30 GMT


Lewis Hamilton says McLaren are going to keep pushing to find even more speed from their car despite being quickest in the first day of practice at the Italian Grand Prix.

World champion Fernando Alonso edged out Hamilton at the end of the first day of action in Monza, but the team are not taking the threat of their rivals lightly.

Hamilton said: "We went through our usual set-up and Bridgestone Potenza tyre comparison work and now have a good understanding of our competitiveness this weekend.

"The car feels really good to drive round here, and we have already made some good steps forward today. However you never know what everyone else is doing, so we will be looking for further improvements before qualifying tomorrow."

Alonso added: "Today went really well. We had a good idea of our performance from the test last week, and although the conditions have changed slightly since then, we were able to get an understanding of the set-up for the race, and I am happy with how the car felt.

"I missed a little time in the morning session when the team were fixing a small problem with my steering, but it didn't really make too much difference to our overall results."