UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Kimi kicks ahead

Coulthard stars

After the artificial damping of the track this morning, nature did it’s best this afternoon with rain falling at Istanbul Park until a couple of minutes after the green light.

The track dried out surprisingly quickly, however, and Kimi Raikkonen – who missed the morning session with a gearbox problem – had no trouble getting into the groove to set an early bench-mark time of 1:27.543 that would not be beaten.

Nearest challenge came not from team-mate Felipe Massa, who had shadowed the Finn all session, but from a stunning late lap by Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren’s had simply not looked the equal of the Ferrari’s in the second and third sectors of this track – indeed nobody, bar a superbly on-form David Coulthard in the Red Bull, had – but Hamilton got the MP4-23 dialled in perfectly for a final fling, nailing the first sector so well as to be able to come within a few thousandths of a second of Raikkonen’s best.

Third went to Massa – a tenth off the front two – and fourth to the remarkable Coulthard, who set a number of consistently quick times in the Red Bull RB4 to finish ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren. Mark Webber, in the second RB4, lost the back end on a kerb and was somewhat unlucky to swipe the front of the car on an opposing barrier, bringing out the red flags briefly, and ending his session there and then.

The top five were the only runners into the 1:27 region – all within half a second – with next best Robert Kubica in the BMW some four tenths behind. BMW are not known for showing their true pace on a Friday, so will not be too disheartened with the Pole’s sixth and Nick Heidfeld’s tenth position.

Between the two BMW’s came Jarno Trulli – doing his customary excellent job ion the Toyota – Kazuki Nakajima in the quicker of the two Williams’, and a no doubt frustrated Fernando Alonso with a Renault failing to live up to the promise shown in Spain.

With sixth to 17th covered by little over a second there is much scope for surprises, in particular from the Force India cars, whose pace appears to be right on the Honda level and far better than the trailing Toro Rosso’s.

Final practice and qualifying follow tomorrow, and the weather may well have a part to play in the final outcome.

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Written: Fri, 09 May 2008 12:52:27