The F1 drivers introduce themselves for the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix @ Kanal D.com.
Turkey’s Prince of Pop, Tarkan, will be singing the national anthem, and he’ll also be hosting a special party
for the F1 drivers and co.
| Free Practise 3 – Webber Fastest in Final Practise
Mark Webber was fastest in the final practice session for the
Turkish Grand Prix, the Australian resisting late challenges from
Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull teammate David Coulthard.
As has been the pattern this season, the title contenders appeared
to work on preparations for Q3 in this session and carry heavier fuel
loads, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa the best of the usual front-runners
in fifth place, behind Williams driver Nico Rosberg.
Lewis Hamilton was the best of the McLarens in seventh, with championship leader Kimi Raikkonen 11th-fastest for Ferrari.
The session got off to a slow start as damp patches lingered on the
circuit following a heavy shower earlier in the morning. After their
installation laps, the drivers returned to the pits to let the circuit
dry out fully, with no one setting a flying lap until Timo Glock
(Toyota) ventured out after 20 minutes.
The German’s time of 1:30.427 – just 1.6 seconds slower than his
best dry lap yesterday – convinced the rest of the field that the
circuit was ready, and a frantic period followed as drivers tried to
make up for lost time on a track that was getting quicker with every
lap.
Hamilton, Rosberg, Alonso, Nelson Piquet (Renault) and Raikkonen all
headed the times within a ten minute period, before Massa hit the front
with a 1:27.530.
As had been the case on Friday, it took the Ferraris several laps to
get up to speed, with both Raikkonen and Massa setting their best times
several laps into their stints, whereas their rivals had been on the
pace immediately.
Massa remained on top for a quarter of an hour until Coulthard
continued his promising Istanbul form by beating the Ferrari driver,
lapping 0.190 seconds faster with eight minutes to go. The only man who
could beat Coulthard’s time was his teammate, as Webber beat the Scot
by 0.3 seconds in the final two minutes.
Coulthard improved on his last run and closed the gap to 0.190
seconds, but the Red Bull duo were then split by Alonso, who beat
Webber’s time in the first sector but was 0.142 seconds adrift over the
course of the lap.
A similar late improvement took Rosberg to fourth, ahead of Massa
and Jarno Trulli (Toyota), with Hamilton, Glock, Jenson Button (Honda)
and Piquet completing the top ten.
Raikkonen ran wide at Turn 1 on his last run and ended up 11th. His
error was one of the few incidents of the session, along with spins by
Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) at Turn 6 and Sebastien Bourdais (Toro
Rosso) at Turn 10.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:27.030 16
2. Alonso Renault (B) 1:27.172 + 0.142 13
3. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:27.193 + 0.163 15
4. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:27.365 + 0.335 16
5. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:27.530 + 0.500 13
6. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:27.614 + 0.584 15
7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.658 + 0.628 18
8. Glock Toyota (B) 1:27.733 + 0.703 22
9. Button Honda (B) 1:27.766 + 0.736 16
10. Piquet Renault (B) 1:27.781 + 0.751 14
11. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:27.837 + 0.807 14
12. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.849 + 0.819 13
13. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:27.899 + 0.869 18
14. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:27.946 + 0.916 14
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:27.948 + 0.918 17
16. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:27.971 + 0.941 16
17. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.301 + 1.271 14
18. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:28.573 + 1.543 18
19. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.655 + 1.625 19
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:29.131 + 2.101 19
So, that’s an interesting final session, as the track was a bit wet before the cars went out. It seems Kimi has been working very hard on the set-up today, hopefully he manages to get everything right for his last qualifying lap. We saw in Spain that he had to change something very shortly before taking pole position. He could do it again, as it pole there was amazing compared he was just a lap heavier than Massa. A long afternoon ahead…keep flying Kimi!
| Free Practise 2 – Kimi Fights Back!
Kimi Raikkonen recovered from his problems in first practice to lead the way in today’s second session in Istanbul.
The Ferrari driver beat McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to the top spot by just 0.036 seconds, with Raikkonen’s teammate Felipe Massa third ahead of the impressive David Coulthard (Red Bull) and Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen.
Having lost most of the morning session to a gearbox fault, Raikkonen wasted no time when afternoon practice began.
He was one of the first drivers to take to a track still slightly damp after drizzle during the lunch break, and soon established himself at the top of the times. The world champion set a 1:27.543 laptime during his first run and it remained unbeaten for the rest of the session.
Hamilton got extremely close to snatching the top spot, though. He beat Raikkonen’s first sector benchmark when he tried soft tyres for his last run, but lost time by getting sideways at Turn 8, crossing the line 0.036 seconds slower than the Ferrari.
Behind Massa – who was also within a tenth of Raikkonen’s time – Coulthard beat Kovalainen to fourth with an impressive late lap, having earlier been as high as third when using soft tyres.
Robert Kubica took sixth for BMW after sitting out some of the morning session with a suspension problem. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima were next up.
The final top ten places were occupied by Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Kubica’s teammate Nick Heidfeld.
Practice was briefly red-flagged after half an hour when Mark Webber crashed his Red Bull at Turn 6. The Australian ran wide on the exit of the corner, then lost grip on the kerb and grass strip, sending the car spinning back across the track and head-on into the opposite barrier.
It came to rest on the edge of the circuit with significant front-end damage, but Webber was unhurt and the marshals were able to clear the debris within seven minutes.
The crash meant Webber ended the session in 19th place, ahead of only Adrian Sutil – whose Force India refused to start for his planned final run.
Timo Glock had a less damaging incident when he ran wide at Turn 4 in the final minutes and broke his Toyota’s front wing as he bounced over the kerbs and grass while trying to rejoin. Sebastien Bourdais was also fortunate to escape damage when he – like Webber – slid back across the track after running wide. The Toro Rosso snapped sideways on the Turn 9 exit kerb and ended up slithering over the grass on the opposite side of the circuit before rejoining unscathed.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:27.543 30
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.579 + 0.036 31
3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:27.682 + 0.139 29
4. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:27.763 + 0.220 24
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.954 + 0.411 27
6. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.431 + 0.888 29
7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:28.619 + 1.076 29
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.664 + 1.121 27
9. Alonso Renault (B) 1:28.681 + 1.138 26
10. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.817 + 1.274 31
11. Button Honda (B) 1:28.826 + 1.283 28
12. Glock Toyota (B) 1:28.849 + 1.306 26
13. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.907 + 1.364 29
14. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:29.008 + 1.465 35
15. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:29.024 + 1.481 22
16. Piquet Renault (B) 1:29.212 + 1.669 26
17. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.462 + 1.919 30
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.630 + 2.087 32
19. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:29.633 + 2.090 4
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:30.832 + 3.289 9
That’s a good attempt to get back to normal running for Kimi, but there’s still some work to do. I suspect he is not close to the right set-up yet, and we’ll find out what he says later, but he definately did a great job on his fastest lap compared to the rest. He told Sky Italia that the gearbox issue didn’t help but the car was much better in the afternoon.
We saw a lot of drivers struggling and going off at turn 8, including Hamilton, so the racing looks like it will be a tough one this weekend! Check out a video of the first practise session, and check out cool shots from today in the KRS Photo Extra HQ.
| Friday Quotes – Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen – 1st: "Not the best of Fridays. This morning, I only managed one timed lap before a gearbox problem meant I could not go out for the rest of the session. In the afternoon, I struggled a bit to find the right settings on the car.
"One of the main problems today was getting the tyres up to the correct temperature, but I think that tomorrow, partly as the grip level on the track improves and partly as we work to improve the set-up, it will be a different situation. We lost valuable time this morning, but we still have enough data to analyse so that we can be ready to tackle the rest of the weekend."
Felipe Massa – 3rd: "Overall, this was a positive day. The track is very fast, even if it’s still a bit dirty, which meant it was quite easy to make mistakes. The low temperatures mean it is difficult to get the most out of the tyres on a first timed lap, especially on the harder ones.
"We tried various settings and now we need to look at the data from everything we have done over these three hours, to be as well prepared as possible. I feel comfortable on this track and I think I can be very competitive tomorrow and on Sunday in the race: it would be fantastic to win again here, after having done it for the past two years."
Luca Baldisserri: "This Friday’s free practice did not go entirely to plan. This morning we had a gearbox problem on Kimi’s car which meant he was stuck in the pits for most of the first session. Felipe managed to get through his planned programme and is reasonably satisfied with the handling of his car, while Kimi is less so.
"As usual for a Friday, we worked on finding the best set-up on the car and on a comparison of the two types of Bridgestone tyre available to us. Now we have to study all the data we have gathered to understand how to improve the performance on both cars."
| Video – FP2: Onboard Kimi, Hamilton’s Slide in Turn 8, Webber’s Crash
http://www.viddler.com/simple/fa472f99/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/52c2bf69/ http://www.viddler.com/simple/b05d34e2/
| Free Practise 1 – Massa Fastest ahead of McLaren, Kimi Suffers Gear Box Dilemma
Felipe Massa got his bid for a third successive Turkish Grand Prix victory off to an ideal start by topping the first free practice session at Istanbul.
While his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen had to sit out most of the session with a gearbox issue, Massa led the way with a 1:27.323 lap, one tenth of a second ahead of McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen.
The Finn proved there were no lasting effects from his Barcelona crash by beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to second place.
The session got off to an extremely quiet start. Several large damp patches around the circuit – caused by late track cleaning rather than rain – dissuaded drivers from attempting flying laps and left the frustrated teams sitting in the pits waiting for the surface to dry as low track temperatures exacerbating the situation.
Forty minutes elapsed before Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais finally broke the deadlock and put a laptime on the board, encouraging others to leave the garage and finally get the action underway.
Grip remained scarce even then, with the cold conditions making it difficult for drivers to generate sufficient temperature in the harder Bridgestones.
Kazuki Nakajima (Williams), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Massa and Hamilton all spun or went off the road in the slippery Turn 3 to 6 complex on their first runs, while Sutil’s teammate Giancarlo Fisichella rotated on the exit of Turn 7.
The challenging Turn 8 also caught out several drivers, with Robert Kubica’s BMW, David Coulthard’s Red Bull, Massa and Sutil visiting the run-off area even as conditions improved.
Kovalainen held the early advantage with a 1:28.283 lap, 0.2 seconds faster than Hamilton managed initially. Ferrari took longer to get up to speed, with Massa lapping a second off the McLarens’ pace at first before improving to 1:27.675.
Kovalainen soon closed to within a tenth of Massa’s time, before the Brazilian improved to 1:27.323 on his final run.
Massa’s teammate barely participated in the session. Raikkonen came out for three laps mid-session as the track dried, but lapped two seconds off the pace and then returned to the garage with a gearbox problem which would sideline him for the rest of the morning, leaving the world champion at the bottom of the timing screens.
Behind Massa and the McLarens, Fernando Alonso’s strong form continued as he set the fourth fastest time for Renault. It was a promising morning for Honda, with Jenson Button and record-breaker Rubens Barrichello taking fifth and eighth places, split by the impressive Nakajima and Nick Heidfeld (BMW). Renault’s Nelson Piquet and Toyota’s Timo Glock completed the top ten.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:27.323 16
2. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.456 + 0.133 17
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.752 + 0.429 15
4. Alonso Renault (B) 1:28.284 + 0.961 16
5. Button Honda (B) 1:28.919 + 1.596 12
6. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:29.002 + 1.679 19
7. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:29.024 + 1.701 21
8. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:29.068 + 1.745 11
9. Piquet Renault (B) 1:29.082 + 1.759 23
10. Glock Toyota (B) 1:29.103 + 1.780 19
11. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:29.329 + 2.006 24
12. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:29.330 + 2.007 7
13. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:29.367 + 2.044 20
14. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:29.756 + 2.433 23
15. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:29.811 + 2.488 23
16. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:30.088 + 2.765 21
17. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:30.340 + 3.017 13
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:30.388 + 3.065 19
19. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:30.426 + 3.103 21
20. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:30.732 + 3.409 3
Ah, we were hoping Kimi wouldn’t have any problems coming to Turkey so strong in the championship but as it is so with a gear box issue, it’s just practise session 1 and hopefully the team will have fixed the problem for the next session at midday. However, it was later confirmed the gearbox would not need to be changed, and that it would be repaired in time for the afternoon session.
Massa can keep the team content by going quickest and I think they’ll be the team to beat once again at Istanbul. Alonso is trying to keep up the good performance from Spain, so hopefully he’ll have a good battle on his hands – maybe he’ll cause problems for BMW in qualifying?
Update at 11.54am: It’s raining on the Istanbul track, just before practise session 2 begins! But it has stopped after 5 minutes.
| Video – FP1 Highlights with no commentary
FUCK ISRAEL 
