19/06/2009
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's second free practice session, the air temperature is 16 degrees C, while the track temperature is 32 degrees. Although there is still a lot of cloud, there is now much more blue and the sun is breaking through. However, weather-wise, the big talking point is the wind, which, along with the cool conditions, caused problems for almost everyone earlier.
This morning's session saw Red Bull and Brawn share the honours, setting us up for what will hopefully be a thrilling weekend.
Ferrari and McLaren, once again, are the only teams running KERS, though the Woking team is only running the controversial system on the Finn's car.
The lights go green and just under a minute later Bourdais heads down the pitlane, followed by Piquet, Kovalainen and Trulli.
Bourdais posts the first time of the afternoon, the Frenchman crossing the line at 1:28.691. However, moments later Piquet posts 25.306, Trulli 24.310 and Kovalainen 24.011.
As more and more drivers take to the track, Piquet, watched by his multi-championship winning dad, goes quickest with a 22.338.
Webber, Vettel and Alonso are all on hot laps as Hamilton posts 21.977 top go quickest. The Australian subsequently crosses the line at 21.102, while Alonso goes second with a 21.443.
Webber raise the benchmark with a 20.402, as teammate Vettel goes third, ahead of Kovalainen, Fisichella and Hamilton.
Having looked good in the first session, Force India continues to impress, with Sutil posting 20.775 to go third. Kubica makes an unusually late decision to dive into the pits, a move which might well attract the attention of the stewards.
Vettel demotes Sutil, posting 20.684, to make it a Red Bull 1-2. Button and Barrichello are currently fourteenth and seventeenth.
In the BMW garage, the crew is working furiously on Kubica's car, the Pole appearing to have suffered his third engine failure of the season. Elsewhere, Webber raises the bar with a 20.263, having gone quickest in the final two sectors. Next time around, the Australian posts 19.597 going quickest in all three sectors.
Finally we're seeing drivers trying the soft tyres, Fisichella among the first to make the switch. Teammate Sutil, also on the soft option, goes second, suggesting that conditions might have improved sufficiently to warrant the switch, a move given added weight when Vettel (softs) demotes his fellow-German.
Massa (softs), posts personal bests in all three sectors but remains tenth, 1.828s off the pace. Meanwhile, Vettel closes to within 0.102s of his Red Bull teammate.
As Raikkonen makes his second unforced error of the afternoon, Nakajima goes fourth with a 20.529.
At half-time, it's: Webber, Vettel, Sutil, Nakajima, Trulli, Kovalainen, Barrichello, Rosberg, Hamilton and Raikkonen.
Kubica is on the pit-wall taking to members of the team crew as the mechanics continue to work on his car.
Kovalainen gets it all wrong at Becketts, and heads of over the grass, the track and then more grass, the Finn, like many of his rivals, clearly struggling for grip courtesy of the wind and the cool temperatures.
Webber is back on track, on softs, as is teammate Vettel. The two are now split by just 0.091s. Nakajima (softs) goes fourth with a 20.302.
Most drivers are on softs now, but they're on long runs as opposed to going for times.
In the Ferrari garage the crew are working on Massa's car, the Brazilian currently down in thirteenth.
Kubica is back on track - and up to eleventh - his crew having done a sterling job in changing the engine in his car. Elsewhere, Vettel goes wide kicking up a cloud of grass and mud, nonetheless, next time around he goes quickest with a 19.456
With ten minutes remaining, Hamilton improves to fifth with a 20.417. Next time around he posts personal bests in the first two sectors but fails to improve overall. Indeed, there are no significant improvements anywhere.
As Vettel leaves the pits, Webber pulls off to the side of the road on the Hangar Straight, his car having clearly suffered a problem, though it's unclear what that problem might be at this time. The replay shows that the Australian, who is running a brand new engine in this session, really hit the kerbs as he exited the Becketts complex, after which the car simply lost power.
Having been hampered by Barrichello, Alonso goes fifth quickest next time around, bumping the Brawn driver down to sixth.
The session ends with Vettel quickest, ahead of Webber, Sutil, Nakajima, Alonso, Barrichello, Hamilton, Trulli, Rosberg and Piquet.
Kubica finished eleventh, ahead of Kovalainen, Glock, Button, Heidfeld, Bourdais, Massa, Raikkonen, Fisichella and Buemi.
On 42, Rosberg completed the most laps, ahead of Sutil (41), Trulli and Fisichella (40).
Quickest through the speed-trap was Sutil (184.552 mph).
Looking at the timesheets, one might be forgiven for thinking that the odds are now in favour of Red Bull, however, the unusual conditions, not to mention that this is Friday practice at a time when there is no in-season testing, means that it is difficult to draw any real conclusions.
Tomorrow is the day when all should become clear.