2008 Grand Prix of France, Practise Sessions 1, 2 & 3

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:15.750           19
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:15.759 + 0.009   14
 3.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:15.827 + 0.077   21
 4.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:15.974 + 0.224   17
 5.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:16.003 + 0.253   18
 6.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.147 + 0.397   20
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.182 + 0.432   16
 8.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.235 + 0.485   18
 9.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:16.256 + 0.506   17
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.282 + 0.532   18
11.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:16.344 + 0.594   20
12.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:16.437 + 0.687   20
13.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.545 + 0.795   16
14.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.617 + 0.867   20
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.644 + 0.894   16
16.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:16.651 + 0.901   20
17.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:16.658 + 0.908   17
18.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.687 + 0.937   19
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.365 + 1.615   23
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.612 + 1.862   21

Well would you look at those times? The top 18 drivers are within 1 second! That’s unusually close, very close. Obviously, it’s a trickful time sheet as everyone had been on completely different set ups and fuel loads. Kimi is infront of the main championship contenders so it’s not so bad. Qualifying is what will matter though and as I’ve mentioned before, I think Kimi will continue to prefer
heavier strategies to get more heat into the tyres for the first stint
of the races so might not be on pole today. He’s won races from behind pole position before, last year he won here from 3rd on the grid. However, he does look quite fast and is progressing really well with them since the last race in Canada so you never know. Fingers crossed and Keep Flying Kimi!

Kimi Raikkonen, the reigning world champion has received a 5000 euro
fine for arriving late at Friday’s officially scheduled driver meeting.
The offence is a breach of Article 37.1 of the 2008 FIA Sporting
Regulations.
(Source)

| Free Practise 2 – Alonso Quickest, Massa & Raikko Behind

Fernando Alonso topped the second Magny-Cours practice session with a rapid late soft tyre lap for home team Renault.

Morning pace-setter Felipe Massa had to settle for second in his Ferrari this time, ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel was an impressive fifth for Toro Rosso, while points leader Robert Kubica (BMW) completed the top six and Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen took seventh.

After the lacklustre morning session, second practice proved much more frenetic – both in terms of close competition, and the number of incidents, as the increasingly hot conditions saw many drivers sliding through the gravel or across the asphalt run-off areas.

Both McLarens and both Ferraris took turns to lead the way during the first half of the session, with Hamilton the first of the major contenders to set a quick time after ten minutes. He stayed ahead of a quarter of an hour before being usurped by Massa, who was only on top briefly before first Kovalainen, then Raikkonen moved to the front.

But Massa responded with a 1:15.854 lap at the mid-point of the session, beating Raikkonen by 0.148 seconds. That was sufficient to keep him at the head of the order until Alonso grabbed the soft tyres and edged ahead by 0.076 seconds with seven minutes remaining.

Earlier in the session, Alonso had run off course at the 180 corner and saved a wild sideways slide on the exit of the final chicane, but the former champion was far from the only driver to make an error.

Hamilton, Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Massa all had spectacular high-speed trips across the gravel at Estoril, with the McLaren driver’s mid-session incident forcing him to change his front wing, and Massa’s late mistake spoiling his soft tyre run.

The Brazilian had a similarly dramatic excursion on the exit of Imola, emerging from the gravel halfway around the Chateau d’Eau. The same area also caught out Renault’s Nelson Piquet and Force India’s Adrian Sutil, although all the drivers managed to avoid the barriers.

The field was extremely close throughout the session, and by the end of the 90 minutes less than one second covered the top 13 cars.

Vettel was rapid all afternoon, regularly running in the top five and using the softer Bridgestones to beat Kubica and Kovalainen to fifth.

Kubica’s BMW teammate Nick Heidfeld was eighth, ahead of Piquet and Red Bull driver David Coulthard. At the end of the session, the drivers tested the new safety car electronics system after they had taken the flag, although the device – which is designed to limit cars’ speed when driving through dangerous situations – remains in the early stages of its development.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:15.778            37
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.854  + 0.076   24
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:15.999  + 0.221   42
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.232  + 0.454   29
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.298  + 0.520   42
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.317  + 0.539   35
 7.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.340  + 0.562   36
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.458  + 0.680   43
 9.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:16.543  + 0.765   39
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.572  + 0.794   36
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.682  + 0.904   42
12.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.743  + 0.965   43
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.758  + 0.980   42
14.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:17.002  + 1.224   32
15.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:17.092  + 1.314   39
16.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.106  + 1.328   38
17.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:17.244  + 1.466   37
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.394  + 1.616   42
19.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:17.591  + 1.813   27
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.868  + 2.090   33

The gap has narrowed down a bit between the two Ferrari teammates, and Kimi seems to be having good progress. Hopefully nothing should get in the way for tomorrow. Alonso’s driving like a world champion in a bad car now, hopefully he too can keep up the progress. The BMWs regrettably are much slower here, but never rule them out! Vettel is maintaining a grip on keeping behind the front runners really well, possibly another big points finish this weekend.

Photos and Videos will be posted here as usual, so watch this space!

| Practise Quotes – Ferrari, Kimi Expects Strong Car

Felipe Massa – 2nd: "It was a good day, apart from a slightly tight neck which I began to feel this morning: so as not to take any risks, I chose to avoid doing too many runs of several laps. I therefore concentrated on the car’s set-up, working with both types of tyre.

"On the softer ones, it seems to be a little bit harder to find the right balance, but we must take into account that today, as usual on a Friday, the track is still dirty. Everyone suffered a bit with graining on the front tyres, but tomorrow the situation should improve. We must study all the data we have gathered to prepare as well as possible for qualifying and the race."

Kimi Raikkonen – 3rd: "I am happy with the way things went during these two free practice sessions. We got through all our usual Friday job list, working mainly towards the race. Of course we don’t know how much fuel our main rivals were running, but I get the impression we are very competitive.

"Maybe I did not get the most out of the first lap, but I am happy with the balance of the car. We tried out this new system for a Safety Car period and I think it could be a good solution because it puts everyone in the same situation and that way,you can’t be penalized just by unfortunate circumstances."

Luca Baldisserri: "Because Felipe was suffering with a stiff neck this morning, we slightly modified the two drivers’ programmes from the usual ones. The Brazilian concentrated on defining the best set-up on the car, while Kimi also had to tackle the task of evaluating the behaviour of both types of Bridgestone tyre available to us.

"We are happy with the work we did today: the F2008 seemed to be going well on this track and that means we can be cautiously confident for the rest of the weekend."

| Practise Videos – Onboard Felipe & Kimi, FP2 Highlights, Long Onboard with Kimi

    http://www.viddler.com/simple/df028eb2/     http://www.viddler.com/simple/ce41a178/     http://www.viddler.com/simple/4ecb2450/

| Free Practise 1 – Massa Fastest, McLaren & Kimi Close Together

Felipe Massa was fastest for Ferrari by a comfortable seven tenths of a second in an uneventful opening practice session for the French Grand Prix.

The McLarens were second and third quickest, with Lewis Hamilton fractionally quicker than teammate Heikki Kovalainen, while Kimi Raikkonen completed the top four in the second Ferrari.

It took almost half an hour before the session got underway in earnest, with Williams’ Nico Rosberg finally becoming the first man to set a flying lap after 26 minutes.

Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) then briefly had a turn on top, before the leading contenders all emerged as practice neared the halfway point.

Kovalainen and Massa both led the way for a few minutes, but it was Hamilton who ended up at the head of the timing screens with a 1:16.002, and he remained fastest until Massa re-emerged just after the hour mark.

The Brazilian produced three laps beneath Hamilton’s benchmark, eventually ending up on a 1:15.450, while Hamilton went wide at the Adelaide hairpin on his equivalent run and failed to improve.

Massa then shaved a further tenth off his time when he rejoined for a final run, lapping in 1:15.306 to cement his dominant position.

Hamilton remained second, while Kovalainen was fortunate to avoid an accident on his last lap when he ran wide into the Estoril gravel trap at high-speed and came close to hitting the concrete wall as he wrestled the car back under control.

Raikkonen was 0.767 seconds slower than Massa in fourth, ahead of championship leader Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), who was one second off the pace in fifth place.

Fernando Alonso took sixth place, but stopped on the approach to the 180 corner in the final minutes after suffering what appeared to be a substantial engine failure. The Renault came to a halt in the run-off area with white smoke bellowing from its rear end. Jarno Trulli escaped a quick spin at the Adelaide hairpin to take seventh for Toyota, with Vettel, Nick Heidfeld (BMW) and Timo Glock (Toyota) completing the top ten.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.306            22
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.002  + 0.696   22
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.055  + 0.749   20
 4.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:16.073  + 0.767   21
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.377  + 1.071   19
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:16.400  + 1.094   23
 7.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.758  + 1.452   32
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.838  + 1.532   27
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.870  + 1.564   21
10.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:16.886  + 1.580   31
11.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:17.063  + 1.757   31
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.234  + 1.928   21
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.269  + 1.963   22
14.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:17.394  + 2.088   30
15.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:17.491  + 2.185   25
16.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:17.683  + 2.377   27
17.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:17.696  + 2.390   25
18.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:17.928  + 2.622   21
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:18.072  + 2.766   27
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:18.673  + 3.367   13

Well looking at the bigger picture, I think we should keep in mind that until Kimi is really confident with the tyres, he’ll continue to prefer heavier strategies to get more heat into the tyres for the first stint of the races. Last year, he was two laps heavier than Felipe for the French GP but his race pace was phenomenal and he took the win. Also, it was similar in Malaysia this year, for example. Kimi’s doing alright. It’s not that he can’t beat Massa in qualifying, it’s that he can’t beat the tyres first, so only after that we can debate properly. Massa is probably the most strong qualifier of the year, and it’s suprising that he hasn’t won more races.

Look at those times, sheesh. Not even half a tenth between the McLarens and Kimi. Cool! I think Ferrari are sandbagging though. We’ll find out tomorrow. I’ll be away this afternoon so the second practise session times, photos, and videos won’t be up until this evening I’m afraid.