14/09/2007
NEWS STORY
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso was fastest in Friday's second free practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, setting a time of 1m46.654. His team mate Lewis Hamilton was second with 1m46.765; 0.111sec behind. Fernando completed 29 laps and Lewis did 28. In the morning session, Lewis was second fastest with 1min47.881 (19 laps) followed by Fernando in third place with 1min47.994 (17 laps).
Fernando Alonso: A good start to the weekend, with all our set-up work completed and with some positive results. The car feels good to drive round here, but as always there is still room for improvement. We have a good idea of where we are and where we can improve, so it should be a close fight all weekend.
Lewis Hamilton: Today we completed all our work without any problems. I love this circuit, so really enjoyed driving round here and just seeing what the MP4-22 could do. The balance of the car on this technical circuit is good, but I struggled to get a clear lap all session until the very end. That being said I could really feel a definite improvement in our overall performance since we tested here back in July.
Ron Dennis: It's good to be focusing on the track action with two problem free practice sessions today, where we managed to complete all our race preparation work. We will have to continue to optimise the car's performance as the circuit cleans and the grip levels improve, but absolutely everyone in the team is fully committed and focused towards winning here this weekend.
Norbert Haug: We went through our planned programme, and the form we showed during testing here was confirmed. Both Fernando and Lewis were fast and posted consistent lap times; our goal is to continue like that.
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