[sameerrao]

Practice 2 results and report

Practice 2: Massa on top as Lewis shines Friday, 16, March, 2007, 05:25 Ferrari confirmed it's pre-race status as favourites when Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen ended Friday's free practice for the Australian Grand Prix first and second fastest. The Brazilian was in control for much of the second session, as first Fernando Alonso, then Nick Heidfeld and finally Lewis Hamilton all tried and failed to break the Ferrari man's grasp on the session. But the British rookie Hamilton did however end the his first day as a grand prix driver, third overall and best of the rest - four places ahead of his double-world champion team-mate Alonso. The teams has a great deal of ground to make up following the morning's mostly wet session, so most of the field was on track as second practice began. Massa immediately set the agenda by lowering Alonso's morning mark to 1m29.1s, but just behind, the increasingly impressive Hamilton snapped at his heels. The pair swiftly chased the target time down into the 1m28s bracket and before long were joined by Alonso and Raikkonen. By the end of the first runs the order had taken on something of a testing feel to it, with Massa's 1m28.111s putting him 0.4s clear of the pack, which was led by Alonso, with Raikkonen a further 0.1s back, just in front of Hamilton. But just before the half hour mark, BMW's Robert Kubica, having sat out morning practice, hinted that this wasn't going to be a total McLaren/Ferrari affair by going second quickest – proving that the German squad really does intend to mix it with the top two this weekend. And just as Alonso moved back to the front with an hour still to go, the Pole's team-mate Nick Heidfeld lapped within a tenth of Kubica to prove the point. Then the red flags came out at half distance after Heikki Kovalainen's Renault stopped on the track with a fuel system problem at the same time as Rubens Barrichello crashed at Turn 14. Both had yet to try for quick laps. As soon as the lights went green again, Massa reclaimed his place at the front with a lap of 1m27.868s. And while Heidfeld initially tried to usurp the Ferrari, the Brazilian simply ran off a number of short bursts of hot laps as he worked down to an eventual, and unreachable, 1m27.353s. Team-mate Raikkonen waited until almost the end of the session to join Massa at the front of the queue, the Finn having spent most of his afternoon seemingly on long runs. But even Kimi's best would still fall some 0.4s short of Massa. Hamilton's fastest lap came late in the session as he staved off a determined effort from Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was fourth quickest. But the world champion team will be concerned that both its drivers were forced to park their cars out on track with the same problem, before the end of the session. No such worries for Heidfeld, who claimed fifth after a particularly consistent run following the red flag period. Alex Wurz put in a brilliant and unexpected flier late on to go sixth for Williams, while team-mate Nico Rosberg proved the team's pace in eighth. Alonso dropped away from the fight after the red flag and ended the day 0.68s off the ultimate pace in seventh, while Kubica and Red Bull's David Coulthard completed the top ten. Anthony Davidson made it a great day for Super Aguri as the Honda B-team drivers outpaced the factory squad. The Englishman, embarking on his first full season as a grand prix driver, was 11th fastest after a session-long battle with his team-mate Takuma Sato who ended up 13th behind Toyota's Jarno Trulli. For much of the 90 minutes Jenson Button looked like a candidate for the top ten, but in the final analysis he slipped down the order to an ignominious 14th. The crest-fallen Brit had predicted as much yesterday. Barrichello wiped out at Turn 14, lightly damaging but beaching his car in the gravel, and was thus forced to watch as he slipped down the order to 15th, just ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Mark Webber could not match DC's pace in the second Red Bull in 17th ahead of Kovalainen's striken Renault. Toro Rosso, rather unexpectedly, may find themselves in a fight on and off the track with Spyker this weekend. As the row rumbles on as to whether or not Super Aguri and STR are using customer chassis, Spyker chief Colin Kolles will have been pleased to see Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers taking the fight to Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi. Australian Grand Prix, Free practice session 2 results 1. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.353s 2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.750s 3. HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.829s 4. FISICHELLA Renault 1m27.941s 5. HEIDFELD BMW 1m27.970s 6. WURZ Williams 1m27.981s 7. ALONSO Mclaren 1m28.040s 8. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.055s 9. KUBICA BMW 1m28.281s 10. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m28.495s 11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m28.727s 12. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.921s 13. SATO Super Aguri 1m29.009s 14. BUTTON Honda 1m29.066s 15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m29.542s 16. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m29.574s 17. WEBBER Red Bull 1m29.801s 18. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m30.097s 19. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m30.383s 20. SUTIL Spyker 1m31.108s 21. ALBERS Spyker 1m31.175s 22. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m31.693s