Finn Kimi Raikkonen expects a tight battle between Ferrari and McLaren at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver, who lost the lead of the championship to McLaren
rival Fernando Alonso in Malaysia last Sunday, dominated today’s
practice sessions in Bahrain, although he was just 0.013 seconds ahead
of Alonso’s teammate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon.
"I think it is going to be very close fight between both of the
teams, and BMW looks quite fast," Raikkonen told reporters after
practice.
"But it is too early to say what the others teams did. So we will see tomorrow."
Raikkonen, using a new engine this weekend, was pleased with his day’s work despite some handling problems with his car.
"It was okay in the end, I think," he said. "It was quite difficult
in the middle of the day with the handling of the car, but we improved
it with some more laps and I was pretty happy in the end."
Teammate Felipe Massa was also happy with his day’s work after posting the fourth fastest time.
"I am pretty happy with the handling of the car, which has allowed
me to be very consistent in terms of performance over long runs," said
Massa.
"We have a good point from which to work over the rest of the
weekend. In particular, we have to work on improving our performance on
the first lap on new tyres. It all looks very close, but we have
everything we need to do well in qualifying and in the race."
Raikkonen stays on top in practice 2 < It was an interesting session!
In Free practise session 2, Kimi’s fast lap got ruined by traffic earlier…
Video:
F12007 Bahrain FP2 Kimi "Argh!"
Meanwhile, KIMI got P1 BABY! 13 thousands of a second faster than Hamilton, so its still very close between Ferrari and McLaren.
Results:
Kimi Raikkonen remained fastest in the second practice session at
Sakhir, but the Ferrari driver had a much smaller margin over the
competition than he had enjoyed earlier on.
In contrast to this morning’s session – which Raikkonen commanded
virtually throughout – second practice saw plenty of changes at the top
of the timesheets.
The McLarens went first and second early on, Alonso two tenths
faster than Hamilton, before Massa moved ahead with a 1:34.043
approaching the mid-point of the session.
Alonso responded with a 1:33.784 lap, while Raikkonen moved up the
order to second shortly afterwards, having languished outside the top
ten following his first run.
Then, with 15 minutes remaining, Hamilton used the softer
Bridgestone option to hit the front, 0.2 seconds quicker than Alonso,
but only briefly before Raikkonen – on the same compound – beat his
time by 0.013 seconds.
A late improvement by Robert Kubica put the BMW third ahead of Massa, who ran wide at Turn 4 on his soft tyre lap.
Alonso completed the top five, having stayed on hard tyres at the end of the session.
Jenson Button suffered what appeared to be an engine failure at the
one hour mark – huge flames erupting from the back of the Honda as it
accelerated out of Turn 2.
The closely-following Massa had a spin on fluids dropped from
Button’s car, but rejoined safely. Button, however, looks set to
require an engine change and will consequently receive a 10-place grid
penalty.
Williams showed promising form again, with Alex Wurz and Nico
Rosberg sixth and eighth quickest, despite the latter having a couple
of trips off the road.
Tenth fastest Jarno Trulli also left the track – spinning at Turn 4
– while his teammate Ralf Schumacher nearly tangled with Scott Speed’s
Toro Rosso at the first corner.
Red Bull improved on their morning form, with David Coulthard ninth
quickest, although Mark Webber had a spin at Turn 10 and was only 14th.
Several drivers became frustrated by traffic during the session,
with both Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella shaking their fists at slower
cars, and Raikkonen raising a middle finger in the direction of a Toro
Rosso.
No penalty for rude Raikkonen – FIA
A spokesman for F1’s governing body says the FIA will not take action
against Kimi Raikkonen after an incident at Sakhir on Friday.
Nicknamed ‘the iceman’, the Finn – although quickest in his Ferrari on
the opening day of Bahrain action – lost his temper with Toro Rosso’s
Californian driver Scott Speed during the afternoon session.
On-board and still photography of the incident reveals Raikkonen, 27,
showing Speed his middle finger.
"He just didn’t look in his mirrors and blocked me completely," Kimi
justified to reporters afterwards.
Asked about Raikkonen’s impolite behaviour, a FIA spokesman is quoted
as telling German newspaper Bild: "He will not be penalised."
FUCK ISRAEL 
Raikkonen stays on top in practice 2 – Bahrain 2007Evenstar Saima – KRS
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