UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Raikkonen leads final practice

Just ahead of McLaren

The penultimate round of the 2007 Formula One World Championship has turned into a game of Chinese checkers as all four front running cars battle each other for the front position in practice.

Today it was Kimi Raikkonen of the Ferrari camp that took the honours in practice but only two one hundredths of a second over reigning champ Fernando Alonso in his silver McLaren.

Alonso's team mate and current points leader Lewis Hamilton was next across the line, just one tenth slower than Alonso, while Felipe Massa was the last of the four but only by three tenths.

Best of the rest in fifth was Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher as he surprised the BMW's to take that honour, while David Coulthard in his Red Bull was sixth. The fastest BMW belong to Robert Kubica who was solid all session long to finish seventh while Finnish rookie Heikki Kovalainen took his Renault to eighth.

Nick Heidfeld in the second of the BMW's spent a lot of time in 18th before working his way to ninth late in the session and last weeks heartbreak sufferer Mark Webber rounded out the top ten for Red Bull.

The Williams of Nico Rosberg wound up with the 11th fastest time ahead of the surprising Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso who beat out rising star and team mate Vettel who finished down in 16th.

In 13th was Jenson Button who showed Honda's lack of consistency from race track to race track as he lead home Jarno Trulli and Anthony Davidson in 14th and 15th respectively.

The disappointing Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella ended the session with the 17th fastest time as he barely shaded the Honda of Rubens Barrichello, Alex Wurz and his Williams, the Super Aguri of Takuma Sato and the two Spyker cars of Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto.

All eyes are now firmly focused on qualifying as the front four battle it out for not only the race but also the title.

Written: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:40:34