Free Practice 2 – Räikkönen Takes Charge

Kimi Räikkönen celebrated the announcement of his contract extension with Ferrari by winning the second practice session at Monza.

The reigning world champion beat BMW drivers Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. The current leader in the standings, Lewis Hamilton, is only fourth for McLaren.

This session began on a wet track, but unlike the morning, the conditions significantly improved. Sébastien Bourdais’ Toro Rosso was the first car to switch to ‘dry’ tires after 20 minutes. Initially, he was five seconds slower than the other drivers, but six laps later, he beat Räikkönen…

Inevitably, the entire field quickly headed to the pits to equip the cars with Bridgestone tires for dry conditions. Within 20 minutes, Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso), Jenson Button (Honda), Nico Rosberg (Williams), Hamilton, and Räikkönen had all been leaders before Kubica made a major impact.

The Pole was briefly beaten by Massa but regained his first place and extended his lead when he moved to Soft compounds for dry conditions.

The BMW driver was the best until the last wave of soft tires received unanimous approval. Räikkönen came to the forefront with a time of 1:23.861, which is 0.07 seconds faster than Kubica.

No other driver improved their time on the last lap. Räikkönen remained in the lead until the end, ahead of the BMW drivers, Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg in the Williams.

Felipe Massa took sixth place in the second Ferrari and Heikki Kovalainen seventh in the second McLaren, followed by Mark Webber’s Red Bull.

Adrian Sutil, who was first a few hours earlier under the downpour, had a very good session even as the other drivers improved, finishing the afternoon in ninth place. Vettel is 10th.

Nelson Piquet is dead last after being ordered to shut off his engine right after an incident in a chicane that he had navigated very poorly.

Free Practice 2 Results – Italian GP – September 12, 2008