Lewis Fights Back


By Emma Aitken
March 14 2008

The second free practice session turned the grid around a bit with Hamilton taking first place and Raikkonen finishing in sixth. Williams managed a much better performance than earlier on in the day and Force India look to be doing very well. The lack of tration control may have caused problems for some of the drivers.

Lewis Hamilton took the fight to Ferrari in the second free practice session before Sunday’s first race of the season at Albert Park, Melbourne. Although home boy Mark Webber looked to have taken the top spot, Hamilton beat his time within minutes of the session closing. On soft tyres Hamilton was the only driver to beat his time from the first practice earlier on in the day. Webber’s performance was impressive though as he had led the way for the majority of the afternoon.  Massa finished in third but he was incredibly lucky not to damage his car after losing control on the fast sweep at turns 11-12 and spun off, narrowly missing the wall. Kovalainen was impressive throughout the whole day and came in fourth again. David Coulthard proved that both Red Bull Racing cars were on good form by taking the fifth position. Kimi’s time in the first session remained the fastest of the day. Although he finished in sixth Ferrari were hardly concerned as Kimi was concentrating on longer fuel-heavy runs. Once again both Toyota’s finished in the top ten. Rosberg had a far more successful run out the second time round finishing in eighth. Force India had a highly encouraging first time out. Fisichella came in ninth. Maybe the team will move up from the back of the grid this season. On the other hand both BMW’s had a very disappointing day with neither finishing within the top ten. Nick Heidfeld in particular seemed to be having trouble handling his F1.08.  He was not alone though as many of the drivers seemed to be having issues running without traction control. Turn 9 appeared to give the drivers a headache with Coulthard, Timo Glock, Alonso and Sato all taking a trip across the gravel while trying to brake through it.  

1HamiltonMcLaren1m26.559
2WebberRBR1m27.473
3MassaFerrari1m27.640
4KovalainenMcLaren1m27.683
5CoulthardRBR1m28.037
6RaikkonenFerrari1m28.208
7TrulliToyota1m28.292
8RosbergWilliams1m28.352
9FisichellaForce India1m28.469
10GlockToyota1m28.582
11ButtonHonda1m28.632
12HeidfeldBMW1m28.731
13AlonsoRenault1m28.779
14BarrichelloHonda1m28.849
15KubicaBMW1m28.860
16NakajimaWilliams1m29.077
17SutilForce India1m29.161
18VettelToro Rosso1m29.193
19PiquetRenault1m29.518
20BourdaisToro Rosso1m29.605
21SatoSuper Aguri1m30.663
22DavidsonSuper Aguri1m31.527