European Grand Prix - Valencia

Raikkonen hopes overtaking won't be needed
Crash.net - Friday, 22nd August 2008
Ferrari 'get off on the right foot' in practice for this weekend's inaugural European Grand Prix at Valencia - with defending F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen's sights set firmly on securing pole position.
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were both effusive in their praise for the all-new Juan Carlos I Marina circuit in Valencia, after Ferrari narrowly proved the team to beat during opening practice for this weekend's European Grand Prix.Having sat just seventh on the midday timesheets, defending Formula 1 World Champion Raikkonen hit back during the second 90-minute session in the afternoon to pip Renault's Fernando Alonso to the quickest time of the day by the margin of a scant two hundredths of a second. It was, he admitted, a positive way to begin preparations.“I like driving this track,” the Finn stated. “It is different to other street circuits we have known. Yesterday when I walked the track I thought it would be fun, and today confirmed that impression.
“There are some very quick parts and almost everywhere there's a lot of room, maybe similar to some of the North American circuits used in the past. They have really done a good job. “Today, our weekend got off to a good start, but obviously it is far too early to say where we are compared to the opposition. Overtaking? It will be difficult, as always – I hope I don't need to, by getting the best position in qualifying. The set-up we have found today is not bad, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.”Having out-paced his team-mate early on, Massa ultimately ended proceedings with the fourth-best time to his name, just over two tenths of a second adrift of the sister scarlet machine. He too professed himself in confident spirits for the challenge set to follow.“They were two enjoyable sessions,” the Brazilian underlined, “with the lap times tumbling bit-by-bit as the drivers lapped and got confidence in the track layout. The track surface is still very dirty, and it is easy to make mistakes which can lose you precious tenths; to do a good lap time you have to be perfect. “I like the track – there's a nice atmosphere and I have to say the organisers have done a good job. Today it was important that we find a good base set-up immediately, and we managed to do that.”
Ferrari are well aware that chief title rivals McLaren-Mercedes are once again the favourites for glory this weekend, but the Scuderia unexpectedly turned the tide on race day in Hungary three weeks ago prior to Massa's agonising late retirement, and team principal Stefano Domenicali is adamant that momentum must be maintained if the eleven-point gap separating the two teams at the top of the constructors' standings is not to shrink yet further.“It was a good day,” the Italian confirmed. “We worked well and acquired a lot of data from this track which, over the next few hours, will be used to prepare ourselves as well as possible for this weekend. “From what we could see, given the usual unknowns on a Friday, we can say we are competitive. Whether we will be competitive enough to reach our target will only be revealed starting with tomorrow afternoon's qualifying.”
“Overall, a good start to this Valencia weekend,” added Maranello's technical director Luca Baldisserri. “It was important to get off on the right foot – and we did. We had prepared a baseline set-up for the F2008 and it seems to be about right, which meant that right from this morning we could work on improving it. Both drivers are reasonably happy with the handling of the car. “Now we have to analyse all the data we have gathered, to work out how to move forward in terms of getting the best performance. Today the track has been very dirty, which was in fact predictable; however, the two types of Bridgestone tyre did not show up any great difference in their performance.”

Raikkonen redresses Valencia balance
Crash.net - Friday, 22nd August 2008
F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen survives late challenges to claim top spot on day one of European Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen shrugged off the surprise of seeing Sebastian Vettel claim fastest time in the opening session on Valencia's new street circuit to take the field below 1min 40secs and set the pace at the end of day one.The Finn moved to the head of the timesheets with a 1min 39.477secs best with minutes to go in the second 90-minute outing of the day, but had to withstand concerted attempts to dislodge him before being able to claim overall honours.
Fernando Alonso came closest to toppling the world champion - and what a reaction that would have got in his homeland - but eventually came up 0.020secs shy of the Ferrari driver, with Jenson Button also getting to within a tenth, posting a best of 1min 39.546secs to claim third spot for Honda.Behind the somewhat surprise leading trio, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen provided a more familiar look to the next three spots as times on the previously dusty circuit began to pick up both grip and pace. Seventh-placed Timo Glock also dipped below the 1min 40secs barrier that had been hard to break first time around, while all bar Vettel managed to improve on their first session times, some by a large margin.Vettel's first session benchmark of 1min 40.496secs proved difficult for the Toro Rosso star to beat, but remained good enough for tenth on the combined timesheet between Nelson Piquet Jr and Giancarlo Fisichella, who had rounded out the top half of the order in session two, along with eighth-placed Robert Kubica.The second 90 minutes saw greater use of the supersoft Bridgestone tyre, leading to the faster times, but also provided greater thrills and spills as the drivers began to find their limits. Felipe Massa headed the list of 'casualties', and was joined on the list of spinners by the likes of Jarno Trulli, Piquet, Fisichella and Nick Heidfeld, who continued to struggle down in 18th spot.
Eleventh and twelfth on the second session timesheets, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg could well have been lower had the Australian not spotted an out of control Williams heading his way. Webber had earlier brought up the rear of the field in session one, but Red Bull Racing got its act together second time around, promoting the Australian to twelfth overall, and team-mate David Coulthard to 14th, sandwiching the errant Rosberg.As RBR rose, Williams dropped back, with Kazuki Nakajima falling to 14th in session two, putting the Japanese ahead of Trulli, Vettel, Adrian Sutil, Heidfeld, Sebastien Bourdais - who also spun - and Rubens Barrichello, who could not replicate team-mate Button's late charge.

Pactice Two - Raikkonen heads three-team tussle
Formula1.com - 22 Aug 2008
Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Honda’s Jenson Button came within an ace of upstaging him in the dying moments, but Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen signalled the intensity of his title challenge by setting the pace in Valencia on Friday afternoon.The Finn had lapped in 1m 39.677s to pip team mate Felipe Massa, when Alonso and Button slipped in laps of 1m 39.497s and 1m 39.546s respectively. Raikkonen’s reply, like the other quick times set on Bridgestone’s super-soft tyre, was 1m 39.477s which proved good enough to get the job done.Massa remained fourth, behind the leading F2008, the Renault and the Honda, and ahead of the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, which had respective laps of 1m 39.712s and 1m 39.954s. The final runner below 1m 40s was on-form Toyota driver Timo Glock, with 1m 39.967s for seventh.BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica was eighth on 1m 40.149s, leading a plethora of drivers thus: Renault’s Nelson Piquet (1m 40.439s), Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 40.500s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber (1m 40.585s), Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 40.607s), Red Bull’s David Coulthard (1m 40.696s), Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima (1m 40.742s), Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 40.877s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel (1m 40.982s), Force India’s Adrian Sutil (1m 40.999s), BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld (1m 41.084s), Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais (1m 41.246s) and Honda’s Rubens Barrichello (1m 41.377s).There were plenty of incidents this time, with Trulli, Piquet, Massa, Fisichella, Bourdais, Heidfeld and Webber all running off track. The big miss of the day came when Rosberg spun under braking for Turn 25 and went backwards down the inside of Webber, who fortunately saw the errant Williams coming and did not turn in.Alonso is also under investigation for crossing the white line whilst pitting.The general consensus is that the drivers love the track, and that the first day of running for the European Grand Prix was a major success.