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In the weeks
leading up to this weekend, the brand new Valencia
street circuit has been compared to Monaco and Canada
and the first day of practice did indeed highlight some
similarities: the harbour setting of the Principality,
the dusty track conditions of Montreal, but one
unexpected factor was that the heat and humidity in the
pit garages approached that usually experienced at the
Malaysian Grand Prix. With the trucks parked undercover
in what used to be a fish market, the hot air generated
by the cars and equipment stays trapped inside, making
it a tough working day for the mechanics. As for the
drivers, having their first ever real laps of a circuit
most of them had only seen on simulators in the factory,
the general consensus is that this brand new street
circuit is a success, partly because it has managed to
include some fast sections and generous run-off areas at
key points.
Kimi Raikkonen had the honour of setting the fastest
time of the day on this very first running at the
Valencia street circuit, taking his Scuderia Ferrari
Marlboro F2008 round the track in a time of 1.39.477.
It's an optimistic start to the weekend for the Finn who
last won a grand prix when the championship came to
Spain for the first time this year in May for the race
in Barcelona. Second fastest was the man that all the
crowds are here to see, Renault's Fernando Alonso. A
surprising third fastest this afternoon was Jenson
Button in the Honda, who lapped just 0.132 seconds
faster than Ferrari's Felipe Massa in fourth place.
Completing the top six were the two McLaren-Mercedes of
Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen in that order.
Despite the dusty track the Ferrari duo nevertheless
completed 54 laps in the morning - 27 a piece and 61 in
the afternoon, with the Finn doing 30 and the Brazilian
one more. The track conditions improved very rapidly
during the day and we can expect to see lap times come
down significantly in tomorrow morning's final hour of
free practice before the excitement of the first ever
Valencia qualifying session in the afternoon.
Scuderia Ferrari already has two Grands Prix under its
belt at the new Valencia street circuit, as both drivers
actually completed at least 57 laps, equivalent to
Sunday's race distance. Felipe in fact did a few
kilometres more, completing 58 laps. The day's work
centred on checking the set-up on the F2008 that had
been established when preparing for this race, on
developing the cars and on the comparison between the
two types of tyre that Bridgestone has brought to this
Grand Prix. There were no technical problems throughout
the three hours of free practice. "It was a good day,"
commented the Team Principal of the Gestione Sportiva,
Stefano Domenicali. "We worked well and acquired a lot
of data from this track which, over the next few hours,
will be used to prepare ourselves as well as possible
for this weekend. From what we could see, given the
usual unknowns on a Friday, we can say we are
competitive. Whether we will be competitive enough to
reach our target will only be revealed starting with
tomorrow afternoon's qualifying."
Felipe Massa: "They were two enjoyable sessions
with the lap times tumbling bit by bit as the drivers
lapped and got confidence in the track layout. The track
surface is still very dirty and it is easy to make
mistakes which can lose you precious tenths and to do a
good lap time you have to be perfect. I like the track:
there's a nice atmosphere and I have to say the
organizers have done a good job. Today, it was important
that we find a good base set-up immediately and we
managed to do that."
Kimi Raikkonen: "I like driving this track: it is
different to other street circuits we have known.
Yesterday, when I walked the track, I thought it would
be fun and today confirmed that impression. There are
some very quick parts and almost everywhere there's a
lot of room, maybe similar to some of the North American
circuits used in the past. They have really done a good
job. Today, our weekend got off to a good start, but
obviously it is far too early to say where we are
compared to the opposition. Overtaking? It will be
difficult, as always: I hope I don't need to by getting
the best position in qualifying. The set-up we have
found today is not bad, but there is still plenty of
room for improvement."
Luca Baldisserri: "Overall, a good start to this
Valencia weekend. It was important to get off on the
right foot and we did. We had prepared a baseline set-up
for the F2008 and it seems to be about right, which
meant that right from this morning we could work on
improving it. Both drivers are reasonably happy with the
handling of the car. Now we have to analyse all the data
we have gathered to work out how to move forward in
terms of getting the best performance. Today the track
has been very dirty, which was in fact predictable,
however, the two types of Bridgestone tyre did not show
up any great difference in their performance."
Free practice - First session
F. Massa: 2° 1.40.654 27 laps chassis 269
K. Raikkonen: 7° 1.41.317 27 laps chassis 270
Weather: air 27/29 °C, track 30/31 °C, clear skies.
Free Practice - Second session
K. Raikkonen: 1° 1.39.477 30 laps chassis 270
F. Massa: 4° 1.39.678 31 laps chassis 269
Weather: air 30/35 °C, track 41/42 °C, cloudy, then
sunny.
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