McLaren suffer another failure

McLAREN suffered a miserable day yesterday after Kimi Raikkonen was forced to change an engine while Toyota set the pace in damp practice conditions ahead of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.

McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa had set the fastest time of the day with a lap of 1:30.532 in the morning before rain affected the second session at the Suzuka circuit to leave Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta on top.

But Raikkonen suffered a disaster when the engine in his car blew up halfway through the morning practice, leaving him with a certain 10-position penalty on the grid for Sunday’s race.