Heikki Kovalainen set the early pace for McLaren-Mercedes on the morning of day two of
Formula 1 testing at
Silverstone in preparation for next weekend's British Grand Prix, the ninth round on the 2008 calendar.
The young Finn completed 38 laps
en route to setting a lap time more than six tenths of a second clear of any of his pursuers, led by Williams-
Toyota's Nico Rosberg and former world championship leader Robert Kubica in his BMW-Sauber.
Felipe Massa was fourth-quickest for
Ferrari, albeit more than a second adrift of the leading pace, with
Scuderia Toro Rosso star
Sebastian Vettel finally getting some mileage around Silverstone following his Tuesday maladies in fifth.
Nelsinho Piquet ended the morning running with the sixth-fastest time to his name, followed by home favourite Jenson Button in the
Honda, Toyota's French Grand Prix star Jarno Trulli and
Giancarlo Fisichella, with the latter three all blanketed by a scant three thousandths of a second and Button and Trulli in fact setting absolutely identical times to one another.
There was an unhappier end to the session for
Force India, however, as Fisichella's VJM01 became unsettled in the strong winds sweeping the former airfield-based circuit, causing the Italian veteran to lose control going through the ultra-quick Becketts corner and slam into the barriers.
Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber also suffered a torrid time, encountering an unidentified electrical problem on his RB4 that limited his track time to a mere four laps – only a day after the plain-speaking Aussie had told
Crash.net ‘I'm saying nothing' when asked whether he thought the Milton Keynes-based squad had finally turned a corner in terms of reliability in 2008… [see separate story –
click here].
Morning testing times:
1.
Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes
1min 20.015secs 38 laps
2.
Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota
1min 20.624secs 40 laps
3.
Robert Kubica BMW-Sauber
1min 21.023secs 38 laps
4.
Felipe Massa Ferrari-Ferrari
1min 21.069secs 43 laps
5.
Sebastien Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari
1min 21.447secs 57 laps
6.
Nelson Piquet Renault-
Renault 1min 21.559secs 63 laps
7.
Jenson Button Honda-Honda
1min 21.580secs 60 laps
8.
Jarno Trulli Toyota-Toyota
1min 21.580secs 54 laps
9.
Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari
1min 21.583secs 52 laps
10.
Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault
No Time 4 laps
Times unofficial, courtesy of F1SA
