Finland's Heikki Kovalainen proved his McLaren Mercedes team are improving rapidly yesterday when he topped the second free practice ahead of Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.
Finland's Heikki Kovalainen proved his McLaren Mercedes team are improving rapidly yesterday when he topped the second free practice ahead of Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.
The 27-year-old Finn clocked a best lap of 1min 28.841sec in the afternoon session after German Nico Rosberg had topped the times in the morning for Williams.
Kovalainen's McLaren team-mate and defending drivers world champion Briton Lewis Hamilton had been second quickest in the earlier session after dominating most of the action.
The session ended in very competitive fashion with the top 16 cars covered by just under eight-tenths of a second, Kovalainen having delivered his best lap with 20 minutes remaining.
Both Hamilton and Williams' Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima also briefly topped the times.
In the end, it was two-times world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso who was second-fastest for Renault ahead of Pole Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber followed by Nakajima and German Sebastian Vettel, of Red Bull, who was fifth.
Italian Jarno Trulli in his Toyota was sixth ahead of Rosberg, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello for Brawn, Australian Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and Brazilian Nelson Piquet in the second Renault.
Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari was 11th ahead of current championship leader Briton Jenson Button of Brawn and Hamilton.
