Lap times: Massa steals Kimi's thunder

Sunday 12th October 2008

Felipe Massa brought an end to Kimi Raikkonen's fastest lap reign in Japan when he stole his team-mate's thunder.

In a season that has seen Raikkonen do very little, the Finn has at least equalled the record for most fastest lap times during a grand prix, 10.

However, his team-mate Massa brought an end to his charge for the record when he set the fastest lap at the Fuji Speecdway with a 1:18.426 as he chased down eighth place and a much-needed World Championship point.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, finished with the second best time on his way to third place in the grand prix, finishing up half a second off Massa's pace.

Renault proved to be the second quickest car on the grid on Sunday afternoon with Fernando Alonso putting it to good use by winning the grand prix, while team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr, finished fourth in the race and in the lap times table.

Heikki Kovalainen set the fifth best time for McLaren but it all came to nothing as the Finn's engine let him down, forcing him into retirement.

Sebastien Bourdais, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld completed the top eight.

As for Lewis Hamilton, his McLaren simply didn't have the speed to come back from his early incident with Massa and his drive-through penalty. He finished outside the points and outside the top 10 on the lap times table.

Times
01 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:18.426
02 Kimi R�ikk�nen Ferrari 1:18.995
03 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:19.101
04 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:19.199
05 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 1:19.258
06 Sebastien Bourdais STR 1:19.262
07 Robert Kubica BMW 1:19.292
08 Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:19.461
09 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:19.524
10 Nico Rosberg Williams 1:19.531
11 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:19.560
12 Sebastian Vettel STR 1:19.617
13 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:19.820
14 Timo Glock Toyota 1:20.254
15 Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1:20.364
16 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:20.575
17 Jenson Button Honda 1:20.849
18 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:21.189
19 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India 1:21.577

Your Comments

wraith

"Kkmi would of thrashed massa's time, if he was'nt dueling with kubica during when he pit the soft tyres on, Good drive Alonso, lady luck is with you... Hammys an a little idiot and massa is a even bigger 1."

Grabyrdy

"What have Renault done to get back to the front ? Fernando talked about tyre management and electronic management. Personally, I suspect that after Flavio was going off loud and long about Certain Teams improving their engines against the rules, they've found a way to do the same (tipped the wink by Someone Senior to shut him up ? - oh, I am a cynic !). Flav has certainly gone very quiet about all that recently, just at the time that the car really started to motor. Interesting, n'est-ce pas ? Robson is right though. Without out-of-control McLarens at the first corner, Kimi would probably have won today. But Lewis was slower because he damaged his car (as well as his chances) while being an idiot on lap one, so who knows ?"

playdeep

"Well done Alonso fantastico! this man is really a world champ. Winning with renault this year is almost impossible but he made it two consecutive! I wish him in a red car in the future. Well if that happens, really sorry for the moaning team."

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