14/09/2007
NEWS STORY
Bruno Senna set the fastest time in today's free practice session at the Spa Francorchamps circuit after the period ended under a red flag as a result of an Andi Zuber off road excursion.
Senna's best time of 1:57.790 was half a second faster than nearest rivals Luca Filippi and Lucas di Grassi: the Brazilian set the time halfway through the session, just before the majority of the field pitted for fresh tyres, but because of the accident most of the drivers were unable to improve their lap times.
Senna was fast from the outset, topping the early times before Timo Glock, Xandi Negrao, di Grassi and Roldan Rodriguez took their turn on the top spot, each of them nibbling away at the time, but fourteen minutes into the session Senna set a time that wouldn't be touched just before the stops.
The pitlane was a hive of activity as the teams worked hard to get 22 drivers back onto the track: Super Nova won that particular battle as Filippi was the first driver back out, and his first timed lap afterwards pushed him up to second on the timesheets.
Unfortunately for the rest of the field Zuber's accident happened a minute later: the Austrian found the wall at turn nine after going in a little too hot and understeering sideways into the barrier, bringing out the red flags. With time running down the marshals were unable to remove the stricken car in time, and the session was soon over.
Behind the top three Adam Carroll, Nicolas Lapierre, Giorgio Pantano, Kazuki Nakajima and Zuber filled the remaining positions in the top eight, with championship leader Glock just outside in ninth position. But with the teams unable to finish their planned session this morning, qualifying promises to be a very interesting time all along the pitlane this afternoon.
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