Prac Two: Glock leads the way in Japan

Friday 10th October 2008

Timo Glock set the pace in Friday's second practice at the Fuji Speedway as the Toyota driver showed his pace on the team's home race.

Glock, who has gone from strength to strength this season, posted a 1:18.383 to beat F1's most recent race winner Fernando Alonso by 0.04 seconds.

Behind the duo came Championship rivals Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa with the McLaren driver getting the better of his Ferrari rival for the second time on Friday. However, the gap between the two was only 0.02s.

Report: Nick Heidfeld, Timo Glock and Giancarlo Fisichella were the first out on track as the temperatures dropped due to the growing cloud cover. Within minutes all the drivers barring the two Ferraris and McLarens had completed their installation laps while Fisi even put in the first time of the session, a 1:24.053.

The Force India driver was quickly dropped down the order as others put in their first times. Fernando Alonso, Seb Vettel, Seb Bourdais, Robert Kubica, Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil were the first to lead the way with Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld completing the top eight.

The two McLarens immediately went top on their first timed laps with Lewis Hamilton leading Heikki Kovalainen as they both broke into the 1:19s. Bourdais separates the two McLarens while the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen take fourth and sixth place respectively.

Massa improved to go quickest wiht a 1:19.535, however his reign was short-lived as Sutil, Trulli and Vettel all took their turn at the top of timesheets with the softer Bridgestone tyres.

Hamilton moved up to second place on the harder tyres before being dropped by Glock's climb to the top of the table.

The drivers continued to lap the circuit, putting in the mileage but without any significant changes to the timesheets with the Honda drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, bringing up the rear.

Hamilton pitted before heading out on the softer tyres, taking second place behind Glock with Raikkonen moving up to sixth place. A fastest first sector time saw Raikkonen improve to third place behind Hamilton as the session entered its final thirty minutes. Massa passed Raikkonen to move up behind Championship rival Hamilton.

The final ten minutes saw a flurry of activity with Alonso moving up to second place and Webber taking P5, slotting in between the Ferraris.

The Aussie, though, was dropped by Raikkonen, who moved up to fifth place after clocking a fastest first sector time.

A late charge from Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima saw the Williams man break into the top eight, finishing in eighth place.

Times
01 T. Glock Toyota 1:18.383 44 laps
02 F. Alonso Renault 1:18.426 41 laps
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:18.463 40 laps
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:18.491 40 laps
05 K. R�ikk�nen Ferrari 1:18.725 39 laps
06 M. Webber Red Bull 1:18.734 39 laps
07 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.734 36 laps
08 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.761 23 laps
09 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:18.803 32 laps
10 J. Trulli Toyota 1:18.863 45 laps
11 R. Kubica BMW 1:18.865 39 laps
12 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.888 43 laps
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:18.981 41 laps
14 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.040 41 laps
15 R. Barrichello Honda 1:19.258 42 laps
16 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:19.287 41 laps
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:19.327 36 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:19.482 44 laps
19 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:19.894 37 laps
20 J. Button Honda 1:19.999 42 laps

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Your Comments

rukdng

"There is always the question... given the best car could the most challenged driver rise to the top. The answer is probably somewhere between depends and of course, the car makes the difference. I guess my question would be what's the point. A WDC is 18 races where the efforts of the engineers and manufacturing at home come together with the drivers and road teams for supremacy. I don't really see the point to changing the mix just for the sake of satisfying a pub debate. Its more fun to debate than to know the answer anyway. "

bgbf1

"Next year or years to come to make F1 more exciting, I'd like to see a reverse order of drivers and cars... drivers from the fastest teams with their team driving the lowest cars... while the drivers and teams from the lowest cars driving the fastest cars... to prove who is really the best of the best driver and teams..."

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