Hamilton Beats The Rest


By Emma Aitken
May 22 2008

Kimi Raikkonen could not match his morning's performance in Monte Carlo and had to be content with third after both Lewis and Nico Rosberg beat his second practise session. Heikki was off the pace compared to Lewis who he trailed by 0.7s. Alonso and Piquet both spun their Renaults.

On the super soft compound tyres Lewis Hamilton was the only title contender who significantly increased his pace in the second free practise session of Monaco. He was 0.4s faster than any of the best of the rest could manage on the same tyre. 

Nico Rosberg also made a vast improvement on the ‘option’ choice to put him in an impressive second place, in front of both of the Ferrari’s. 

Raikkonen could only manage third and Massa was behind him in fourth. Initially Kimi came out as being the one to beat but it took Lewis only four flying laps to better the Finn’s time of 17.390s. Lewis finally settled for a time of 1.15.668s at the end of his run on the harder compound tyres. 

Rosberg came out and took the lead time of 1m15.533s and only Hamilton could better him with his final time of 1m15.140s, on the soft tryes. 

Heikki could not match his team mate’s pace and finished the session a huge 0.7s slower than the sister Mp4-23. Kubica was over a second off the pace. 

Alonso finished in seventh but the Renault drivers kept the team busy throughout the second half of the session as both of them damaged rear wings due to spins at St Devote. Piquet ran in to trouble through under braking in to the first turn, losing the rear of his R28 and spinning backwards in to the tyre barrier.

Alonso touched the rear end of his car in to the guard rail after its back end stepped out on him in the corner. The session was red flagged briefly as his rear wing finally fell off at Mirabeau and the marshals had to clear away the debris. 

Button and Barrichello performed well in their Honda’s to finish the day eighth and tenth respectively. Rookie Nakajima did a great job to come home in ninth. 

Both Red Bull Racing and Toyota struggled for pace throughout the session and neither team could manage to finish in the top ten. 

  

POSDriverTeamTime
1HamiltonMcLaren1m15.140s
2RosbergWilliams1m15.533s
3RaikkonenFerrari1m15.572s
4MassaFerrari1m15.869s
5KovalainenMcLaren1m15.881s
6KubicaBMW1m16.296s
7AlonsoRenault1m16.310s
8ButtonHonda1m16.351s
9NakajimaWilliams1m16.372s
10BarrichelloHonda1m16.418s
11HeidfeldBMW1m16.426s
12GlockToyota1m16.688s
13WebberRed Bull Racing1m17.094s
14CoulthardRed Bull Racing1m17.131s
15PiquetRenault1m17.246s
16FisichellaForce India1m17.251s
17TrulliToyota1m17.379s
18BourdaisToro Rosso1m17.581s
19SutilForce India1m18.176s
20VettelToro Rosso1m18.225s