The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Massa is fastest in practice

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Massa is fastest in practice

Magny Cours: Former World champion Fernando Alonso pipped the fancied Ferraris on Friday in the second free practice session for the French Formula One Grand Prix.

But the fastest time on the day came from Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, who posted 1 minute 15.306 seconds for the 4.411-km lap in the morning session.

Alonso led the afternoon practice for the French Renault team with 1:15.778 from Massa 1:15.854 and world champion Kimi Raikkonen (1:15.999) in the other Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth in a McLaren-Mercedes in 1:16.232 and Robert Kubica, who got his first career win for BMW two weeks ago in Canada, had 1:16.317. That was only marginally faster than Kubica’s morning result of 1:16.377 while Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa were all faster in the morning. Alonso was sixth in the first session.

Kubica leads the championship standings with 42 points from Massa and Hamilton (38 each) and Raikkonen (35). Hamilton will be downgraded 10 positions on the starting grid for Sunday’s race for causing a pit lane accident with Raikkonen inCanada.

McLaren has not won in Magny-Cours since 2000 while Ferrari has won five of the last seven races there, the latest being Raikkonen’s success in 2007. — Another practice round and qualifying takes place on Saturday and the French Grand Prix is on Sunday. — DPA

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