Kimi Raikkonen stamped his authority on proceedings as practice got underway this morning in Istanbul Park. The Finn was the pacesetter throughout the hour-and-a-half first session, eventually working his way down to a best of 1m 27.988s, which compares with Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa’s 1m 26.907s pole last year. The Brazilian was second fastest, 0.403s behind on 1m 28.391s. And then there was a gap of almost a second to the McLarens. Lewis Hamilton was third right up until the end on 1m 29.361s, when Fernando Alonso took the place with 1m 29.222s. Food for thought for the silver arrows team after a day spent yesterday trying to effect a bond between their warring drivers, but nothing to get too excited about at this early stage.

Hamilton set the pace in second practice on Friday afternoon, lapping his McLaren in 1m 28.469s to head Raikkonen, who took his Ferrari round Istanbul Park in 1m 28.762s. Raikkonen’s morning best of 1m 27.988s hence remained unbeaten. As their team mates Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were sixth and fifth fastest respectively, it fell to the Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli to take third and fourth-fastest times. Schumacher lapped in 1m 28.773s, Trulli 1m 28.874s. Massa’s best was 1m 28.884s, Alonso’s 1m 28.947s, and Nico Rosberg was the only other driver to dip below 1m 29s with 1m 28.995s for Williams. There was a lengthy delay partway through the session when it had to be red flagged because a drain cover had come loose in Turn 10; practice only resumed after it had been welded back down.

Kimi Raikkonen: "I am reasonably happy with the way things went in the morning and a bit less so when it came to the afternoon. For some reason, probably a change in the wind direction, conditions were rather difficult and we will have to evaluate very carefully the data from the second session because it is easy to go down the wrong route. As for the two types of tyre, from what we have seen today, both work well but we will have to wait to do a more complete evaluation tomorrow. We have a good package which we must try and get the most out of."
 

Felipe Massa: "I am happy with the outcome of these three hours of free practice. Both this morning, when I was running without the latest aerodynamic updates and this afternoon, the car was well balanced. There is still some room for improvement, but that is just part of the normal evolution of a race weekend. Both types of tyre seem to be very quick and consistent in terms of performance. We will have to evaluate them carefully in terms of their performance for the race. In the afternoon, probably because of the wind, the track conditions changed and overall, there was less grip. I set my best time in the first minutes when I was still on worn tyres. I think we will be competitive."

Luca Baldisserri: "It was pretty much a normal Friday, when we concentrated on finding the best set-up for the car and on comparing the two types of tyre we have here. We had no particular problems on either car. The only difficulties today were caused by the long red flag period, which meant we had to slightly shorten the programme and also by the change in track conditions. This was probably due to a change in the wind direction which caused a slight lack of grip, especially in the final sector of the track. Even taking the cautious view, we can however be moderately confident about how the rest of the weekend should go."

Free practice - First session: K. Raikkonen: 1st 1.27.988 22 laps chassis 262; F. Massa: 2nd 1.28.391 20 laps chassis 263; Weather: air temperature 30/31 °C, track temperature 36/43°C, clear skies. Free Practice - Second session: K. Raikkonen: 2nd 1.28.762 21 laps chassis 262; F. Massa: 5th 1.28.884 25 laps chassis 263; Weather: air 36/35 °C, track 46/44 °C, clear skies.