Hamilton heads rivals in practice

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the second practice session at the Turkish Grand Prix.

The Englishman set a lap of one minute 28.469 seconds to beat Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari by 0.293secs, with Hamilton's team-mate Fernando Alonso sixth.

But Hamilton was nearly 0.5secs slower than the time Raikkonen set in the morning session - 1:27.988.

That lap put Raikkonen more than a second faster than the McLarens, of which Alonso was marginally quicker.

The morning session suggested Ferrari may be able to reignite their title challenge.

But the two teams appeared much more closely matched in the afternoon, as would be expected in a season in which the advantage has see-sawed between the two.

Hamilton topped the times almost throughout the afternoon session.

He was initially only slightly quicker than Alonso, but a subsequent lap put him 0.478secs ahead of the world champion, who did not respond.

Alonso predicted a close fight between the two top teams.

"We are definitely among the strongest here," the Spaniard said, "but as expected it will be a tough fight with Kimi and Felipe [Massa]."

And Hamilton said: "I am happy with the performance so far, especially as the conditions today were not ideal. It is a shame that both sessions were interrupted, but the work we did was productive and we made some good progress."

Ralf Schumacher's Toyota was third fastest in a session that was stopped for half an hour because of a loose drain cover.

David Coulthard had an eventful day in his Red Bull.

The Scot's morning session ended in dramatic fashion when his car caught fire, forcing the Scot to stop on track and allow marshals to douse the flames. He was 11th fastest in the afternoon.

"The boys did a great job to get the car out again when they did as there was a lot of work to do. It was a good effort," said Coulthard.

"Originally we were going to use the T car for the second session, but I wanted to stay with the race car.

"So we changed the engine instead, and once the car was ready, we got on with working through our normal Friday practice."

Turkish Grand Prix, first free practice times

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1 min 27.988 secs
2. Felipe Massa (Bral) Ferrari 1:28.391
3. Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.222
4. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1:29.261
5. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 1:29.346
6. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyoto 1:29.403
7. Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:29.414
8. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:29.541
9. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:29.641
10. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:29.685
11. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:29.710
12. Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda 1:30.384
13. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 1:30.398
14. Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:30.483
15. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:30.580
16. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:30.612
17. Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda 1:30.624
18. Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams-Toyota 1:30.876
19. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:30.917
20. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:31.383
21. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Spyker-Ferrari 1:31.445
22. Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn) Spyker-Ferrari 1:32.270

Second session times:

1 Hamilton 1:28.469
2 Raikkonen 1:28.762
3 Schumacher 1:28.773
4 Trulli 1:28.874
5 Massa 1:28.884
6 Alonso 1:28.947
7 Rosberg 1:28.995
8 Kovalainen 1:29.025
9 Wurz 1:29.093
10 Kubica 1:29.368
11 Coulthard 1:29.435
12 Fisichella 1:29.456
13 Heidfeld 1:29.792
14 Button 1:29.945
15 Barrichello 1:30.055
16 Sato 1:30.104
17 Webber 1:30.315
18 Davidson 1:30.530
19 Liuzzi 1:30.702
20 Vettel 1:30.801
21 Sutil 1:31.153
22 Yamamoto 1:31.175

Source: BBC Sport