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Raikkonen has problem

First practice for the Turkish Grand Prix may as well have been reduced to 45 minutes, for a late decision by track officials to hose down parts of the circuit meant everyone opted to stay in their garages for the first half of the session.

With Kimi Raikkonen sidelined by a gearbox problem, it was left to Turkey master Felipe Massa to set the pace, the Brazilian topping the timesheets with a final best of 1:27.323.

This was just over a tenth quicker than Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn in the McLaren fully recovered and on the pace straight away, and three tenths quicker than team mate Lewis Hamilton at the end of the session.

These three appeared to be in a class of their own, with Fernando Alonso in the Renault another half second away and next man Jenson Button a further six tenths behind the Spaniard as Honda had a promising morning – Rubens Barrichello, in the second RA108, came home in eighth place.

Kazuki Nakajima saw alate run put his Williams sixth, while Nick Heidfeld, Nelson Piquet and Timo Glock were the other top ten runners.

Further back the Force India pair again impressed – Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella 14th and 15th – while the Red Bull and Toro Rosso runners all had problems getting any pace out of their cars.

Written: Fri, 09 May 2008 09:01:36