A last minutue dash by Fernando Alonso on his super soft Bridgestone tyres saw him vault up the timesheets steering ahead of all time rival Lewis Hamilton by just a tenth of a second in the 2nd Free Practice Session at Singapore. Though running considerably lighter than the others, the two time world champion showed his class by putting in a stunning lap in the much underpowered R 28.
It was business as usual for the Mclaren’s and Ferrari’s with both Hamilton and Massa trading fastest laps. Most of the drivers were concentrating on setting up the car for qualifying and the race, with the times hardly anything to go by.
Lewis Hamilton however managed to be consistantly faster than Felipe Massa throughout the session with Massa trailing just behind. The Maclaren seemed to ride the kerbs far better than the Ferrari and this enabled Hamilton to be far more aggresive tackling the kerbs.
Kimi Raikkonen struggled with the balance of his Ferrari as he set the seventh fastest time. The F2008 seemed to suffer from a lack of grip and the defending champion spent much of the session holding various slides as the back end of the car stepped out.
Robert Kubica led the BMW Sauber challenge with the sixth fastest time but Nick Heidfeld was off the pace in the second F1.08 and just 16th some two seconds off the ultimate pace. Heidfeld spent much of the session evaluating the softer option tyre.
The entire session was almost incident free except Timo Glock losing the car on turn ten and gifting his cars nose to the barrier.
Both the practice sessons suggest that Mclaren might just have the edge over Ferrari in qualifying tommorow. With strategy and weather also playing their part, we are surely set for a thrilling weekend ahead.
