Grand Prix of Brazil, Practise Sessions & Videos

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:12.141           19
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:12.212 + 0.071   18
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:12.225 + 0.084   18
 4.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:12.312 + 0.171   17
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:12.389 + 0.248   19
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:12.402 + 0.261   19
 7.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:12.426 + 0.285   18
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:12.453 + 0.312   18
 9.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:12.457 + 0.316   24
10.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:12.457 + 0.316   19
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:12.625 + 0.484   16
12.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:12.698 + 0.557   18
13.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:12.712 + 0.571   22
14.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:12.971 + 0.830   22
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:13.054 + 0.913   19
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:13.058 + 0.917   22
17.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:13.135 + 0.994   24
18.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:13.278 + 1.137   23
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:13.460 + 1.319   22
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:13.680 + 1.539   22

Kimi was working on a heavy fuel set up presumably, but he’ll need the sun shining to have a better qualifying run as Massa and Hamilton will be hard to beat. Let’s wait and see what the final qualifying of 2008 brings!

| Free Practise 2 – Alonso Faster Than Massa, Followed By Trulli & Kimi

Pos  Driver       Car                       Time               Laps
 1.  Alonso       Renault              (B)  1:12.296           43
 2.  Massa        Ferrari              (B)  1:12.353  + 0.057  41
 3.  Trulli       Toyota               (B)  1:12.435  + 0.139  44
 4.  Raikkonen    Ferrari              (B)  1:12.600  + 0.304  32
 5.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:12.650  + 0.354  45
 6.  Vettel       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:12.687  + 0.391  47
 7.  Piquet       Renault              (B)  1:12.703  + 0.407  44
 8.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:12.761  + 0.465  42
 9.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.827  + 0.531  33
10.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:12.886  + 0.590  42
11.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:12.896  + 0.600  38
12.  Kubica       BMW Sauber           (B)  1:12.971  + 0.675  48
13.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber           (B)  1:13.038  + 0.742  49
14.  Glock        Toyota               (B)  1:13.041  + 0.745  39
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:13.213  + 0.917  37
16.  Barrichello  Honda                (B)  1:13.221  + 0.925  39
17.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:13.273  + 0.977  41
18.  Button       Honda                (B)  1:13.341  + 1.045  49
19.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:13.428  + 1.132  32
20.  Fisichella   Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:13.691  + 1.395  33

Quite an okay day for Kimi then. Hamilton says McLaren are ‘blindingly quick’
but if that was true then they should have been fastest in all
sessions! The Alonso and BMW bunch will be key interferers. Let’s hope
Kimi can get on the front row tomorrow in qualifying, for the third
consecutive time after Fuji and Shanghai!

| Practise Quotes – Ferrari

Felipe Massa – 2nd: "It might only be Friday, but
it’s important to get off to a good start on such an important weekend.
We found a good set-up for the car, which seemed to be well balanced in
both sessions. The track here offers a lot of grip and so, even with
today’s low temperatures, that was not a problem, especially given the
tyres we have available to us here. My aim? To be in front of everyone,
both tomorrow and on Sunday. Then we can do the maths when it’s over.
Racing at home, with the crowd on your side is a great motivation for
me: it’s a fantastic feeling, but difficult to put it into words."

Kimi Raikkonen – 4th: "It was a generally positive
day for us, although it is still only Friday, which means it’s too
early to drawn any definite conclusions. We worked through our usual
programme and tried various settings on the car. The only difficulty
was linked to the weather, with the rain coming down occasionally. My
aim? To do my own race and help the team reach its objectives and I
know what I have to do for that to happen. It will be a tough race on
Sunday and you never know what could happen: we have to be prepared for
every eventuality."

Stefano Domenicali: "I would say we can be
satisfied with the work carried out today. It was important to get off
on the right foot on the weekend that will decide the outcome of both
world titles. First impressions seem positive, even allowing for the
fact that an accurate assessment of the results of Friday practice
involves several unknown factors. Furthermore, the weather, with some
occasional drizzle, added a additional variable. Now we will
concentrate on being as well prepared as possible for the rest of the
weekend."

Luca Baldisserri: "We have started this final round
of the season in positive fashion. We got through our programme with
both drivers, with no particular problems, which is always important.
The F2008 seems to be competitive, both on the first timed lap and over
a distance, on both types of tyre that Bridgestone has brought here.
The only complication was the rain which, falling intermittently,
sometimes complicated our work on track. Now we must prepare
scrupulously and with great attention for qualifying and the race. The
weather forecast is very uncertain, so we need to be ready to tackle
changeable conditions, with all the unknowns that involves."

| Free Practise 1 – Massa Quickest Ahead of Hamilton, Kimi Close Behind!

Felipe Massa beat his title rival Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time
in opening practice at Interlagos, after a very close battle between
the championship combatants.

It was McLaren driver Hamilton who held the advantage for most of
the session, which took place on a mostly dry track occasionally made
slippery by drizzle, before Massa’s Ferrari edged ahead by 0.190
seconds in the closing minutes.

The title contenders remained in the garages for the first half of
the session, allowing the Toro Rossos, Renault’s Nelson Piquet and
Toyota’s Timo Glock to lead the way early on.

But once the front-runners emerged, it was Hamilton who got up to
speed fastest, quickly putting in a 1:12.495 to move to the head of the
times.

Massa appeared to lack the McLaren’s first lap pace, but edged ever
closer – narrowing Hamilton’s advantage first to 0.193 seconds, then
0.062, 0.047 and eventually 0.014 seconds.

With the light but persistent spots of rain starting to make the
track treacherous, it looked like Massa might have to settle for a
tantalisingly close second place, but the Brazilian then threw in a
1:12.305 on his final run to beat Hamilton by nearly two tenths of a
second.

The Briton was unable to respond, locking his brakes and flat-spotting a tyre on his next flying lap.

Raikkonen, who had a quick spin when the track was at its slickest,
was just 0.012 seconds slower than Hamilton in third place, with BMW’s
Robert Kubica pushing Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen
back to fifth.

Renault duo Fernando Alonso and Piquet took sixth and eighth, split
by Red Bull’s Mark Webber, as the final top ten spots fell to Nick
Heidfeld (BMW) and Glock.

Pos  Driver       Car                       Time               Laps
 1.  Massa        Ferrari              (B)  1:12.305           24
 2.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.495  + 0.190  23
 3.  Raikkonen    Ferrari              (B)  1:12.507  + 0.202  18
 4.  Kubica       BMW Sauber           (B)  1:12.874  + 0.569  24
 5.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:12.925  + 0.620  20
 6.  Alonso       Renault              (B)  1:13.061  + 0.756  25
 7.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:13.298  + 0.993  24
 8.  Piquet       Renault              (B)  1:13.378  + 1.073  39
 9.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber           (B)  1:13.426  + 1.121  28
10.  Glock        Toyota               (B)  1:13.466  + 1.161  33
11.  Trulli       Toyota               (B)  1:13.600  + 1.295  24
12.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:13.621  + 1.316  23
13.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:13.649  + 1.344  30
14.  Barrichello  Honda                (B)  1:13.676  + 1.371  28
15.  Button       Honda                (B)  1:13.766  + 1.461  13
16.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:13.806  + 1.501  24
17.  Vettel       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:13.836  + 1.531  30
18.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:13.861  + 1.556  19
19.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:14.704  + 2.399  21
20.  Fisichella   Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:14.821  + 2.516  21

Just look how close the top 3 are! Most importantly, how close Kimi is. The session was wet at one point and Kimi’s performance on dry tyres looked very good (we always knew he was a good wet driver) so at least the car is back to his liking and he can enjoy this final Grand Prix weekend of 2008.

| FP1 Videos – Kimi & Nakajima

Capture: Echti | Duration: 0.11mins | Size: 2.16MB
Download via Mediafire 

Kimi Spins

Capture: Echti | Duration: 0.28mins | Size: 5.18MB
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Onboard with Kimi

Capture: Mattzel89 | Duration: 1.08mins | Size: 22.2MB
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