Fernando Alonso gave his supporters what they came to see by topping today’s final practice session during the closing stages. He almost went quicker on the next lap but spun during the final sector.

This wasn’t the only excitement for the Spainard today, who had an incident with Heldfeld, taking off his own front wing and putting the German out of the remainder of the session. Nick’s time radio said it all but we aren’t sure if he was labeling Alonso or just his move “plain stupid”!

Not a great first day results wise for Kimi or Ferrari with Raikkonen in 11th and Luca Badoer finishing 18th overall. Raikkonen seemed to be putting in a lot of long runs which means he must have been focusing on race pace but sadly his long stint on the super softs had to end early due to bad graining. Lets hope this afternoon’s press release brings some positives from today.

Brawn seemed to have the advantage over the Red Bull’s in the title battle, with Vettel finishing 9th and Webber having a fairly quiet day ending up 14th, in comparison to Button’s 2nd and Barrichello’s 3rd overall. The hotter temperatures must be helping the Brawns’ with their tyre management. Again we’ll just have to wait to hear from the drivers and see how things shape up for the rest of the weekend.

The only other notable incident from today’s action was Lewis Hamilton putting himself out of FP2 with a spin. He was taking his turn with the new nose cone (which McLaren only have one of this weekend) and lost the back end. This spin and light touch with the barrier, caused some front end damage to the ‘hanger’ which is used to connect the nose to the car. So with the new revised nose luckily unharmed but the hanger damaged, Lewis had to sit out today’s final session after only 3 laps as it wasn’t fixable in time for him to take part in FP2.

All in all it looks like it will be an exciting qualifying session tomorrow, even if the race proves to be boring like last years well hyped event!

Jemela Coventry

Free Practice One

Pos Driver        Team                      Time             Laps

 1. Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:42.460           19

 2. Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:42.636  +0.176   16

 3. Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:42.654  +0.194   18

 4. Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:43.074  +0.614   19

 5. Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:43.088  +0.628   17

 6. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:43.209  +0.749   13

 7. Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:43.225  +0.765   25

 8. Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:43.243  +0.783   19

 9. Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:43.345  +0.885   18

10. Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:43.384  +0.924   23

11. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:43.389  +0.929   30

12. Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:43.419  +0.959   20

13. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:43.637  +1.177   30

14. Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:43.746  +1.286   22

15. Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:44.040  +1.580   23

16. Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:44.126  +1.666   17

17. Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:44.356  +1.896   23

18. Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:44.638  +2.178   26

19. Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:44.732  +2.272   28

20. Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:45.840  +3.380   25

All timing unofficial

Free Practice Two

Pos Driver        Team                      Time             Laps

 1. Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:39.404           33

 2. Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:40.178  +0.774   33

 3. Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:40.209  +0.805   34

 4. Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:40.385  +0.981   39

 5. Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:40.503  +1.099   35

 6. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:40.596  +1.192   23

 7. Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:40.643  +1.239   34

 8. Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:40.681  +1.277   31

 9. Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:40.723  +1.319   33

10. Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:40.738  +1.334   31

11. Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:40.739  +1.335   39

12. Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:40.770  +1.366   32

13. Grosjean      Renault              (B)  1:40.787  +1.383   35

14. Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:40.956  +1.552   37

15. Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:40.985  +1.581   30

16. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:41.156  +1.752   34

17. Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:41.350  +1.946   29

18. Badoer        Ferrari              (B)  1:42.017  +2.613   37

19. Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:42.089  +2.685   34

20. Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:43.214  +3.810    3

All timing unofficial

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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