Kimi
Räikkönen caught a perfect prelude for the Spanish Grand Prix in
Barcelona today. He was the fastest man on track of the Circuit de
Catalunya in both first practice sessions.
Kimi
completed a total of 17 laps in the first free practice in the
morning and set in 1:20.649 minutes not only the fastest time of
the first practice session but even of the whole day. Kimi's team
mate Felipe Massa finished second right behind him with a gap of
only 0.050 seconds. The McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton
followed on the third position, but he was already more than half
of a second slower than the Finn.
Kimi
then was the fastest man on track also in the second free
practice. However, because of the higher track temperatures, the
driven times were slower than in the morning session. Kimi
achieved a time of 1:21.935 after a total of 38 driven laps. With
that he was almost a 0.1 second faster than the two Renault pilots
Nelson Piquet jr. and Fernando Alonso on the second and third
position. Kimi's team mate Felipe Massa finished fifth in the
scond free practice with a lap time of 1:22.229 minutes.
"I
am pleased with this first day of testing. We did the work we
needed to do and had no problems, this being probably the most
positive thing. The balance of the car is good, even if there is
always room to improve and its handling was also good on both
types of tyre. As usual on Friday, it is hard to judge where we
are up against our rivals and I think we can expect a very close
fight. The new nose? We wouldn't use it if it didn't give us a
little something extra!"
1st and 2nd Free Practice