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Ferraris dominate opening practice session

Toyota driver Jarno Trulli of Italy steers his car into a hairpin yesterday during the first practice session for the Belgian F1 Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps. PHOTO: AP

Brazilian Felipe Massa and his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen of Finland dominated yesterday’s opening practice session ahead of tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Massa set a best time of one minute and 47.284 seconds round the majestic Spa-Francorchamps circuit to finish up three-tenths of a second quicker than his partner, who has won the last three Grands Prix.

But defending drivers world champion Raikkonen, like tennis star Roger Federer of Switzerland, appears to be a champion in slow decline who is grappling to maintain his dominance — and may face a struggle to extend his winning streak to four races this weekend.

Championship leading Briton Lewis Hamilton was third fastest for the McLaren Mercedes team ahead of his team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen.

With the 23-year-old Englishman leading the title race by six points from Massa, Ferrari are desperate for a Belgian victory and are seeking to repeat their dominant one-two triumph in last year’s race, won by Raikkonen.

Massa was fastest for the majority of the morning in overcast but dry conditions after delivering the first flying lap of the weekend and then repeatedly improving his time as his first run progressed.

Raikkonen had a more leisurely start to his Spa weekend and then spoiled his first effort with a mistake at La Source, but he eventually got down to a 1:48.075 to usurp Massa at the top of the times as the session approached its halfway point.

But Raikkonen’s period in front was brief, as Massa lapped in 1:47.813 six minutes later to reclaim first position, where he would stay despite improvements by both his team-mate and Hamilton.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault was the nearest challenger to the title contenders throughout the session and ended up fifth behind Kovalainen ahead of Australian Mark Webber who leapt up to sixth for Red Bull with his last lap of the session.
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