Alonso thrills home fans
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso thrilled the partisan Spanish crowd by dominating Friday afternoon’s practice at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The world champion moved to the top of the timing charts a third of the way through the 90-minute session and was never seriously threatened.
There was a late surprise, however, as Renault duo Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen vaulted up the order to second and third respectively – by far the best showing from the embattled world champion squad so far this season.
Kovalainen might well have beaten Fisichella had he not spun at turn 13 on his final lap; as it was, Giancarlo finished 0.3s behind Alonso with Heikki a further three-tenths adrift.
Renault’s late surge demoted Felipe Massa to fourth place in the lead Ferrari, ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and the second F2007 of Kimi Raikkonen.
As had been the case in the morning, McLaren took control of the proceedings early on and never relinquished it.
Alonso’s time put him nearly 0.8s clear of his nearest challenger until the last-minute scramble.
The Spaniard will have been pleased to reassert his authority over Hamilton after giving best to his rookie team-mate in the opening session.
Lewis blew his chances of a late improvement with a trip across the grass at the first corner on his last run, but for much of the session he had been second only to Alonso.
Massa ultimately beat Hamilton to fourth, having made a pair of mistakes at turn 10 on his previous efforts, while Raikkonen ended up sixth.
All the indications are that the midfield battle will be as tight as ever this weekend.
Nico Rosberg was an encouraging seventh fastest for Williams ahead of Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber, Mark Webber’s Red Bull and the Toro Rosso of Scott Speed - the American having been as high as second early on.
source: itv-f1
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