Fisichella sets pace in practice

Giancarlo Fisichella put his only flying lap to good use at Silverstone today by setting the fastest time for a race driver in practice for the British Grand Prix.

The Renault driver was quickly on the pace but overstepped the mark after setting the second fastest time of the session, spinning midway through the session before limping back to the pits.

That left BMW-Sauber test driver Robert Kubica clear out front with his lap of one minute 21.082 seconds, 1.212secs faster than Fisichella's only serious timed lap.

Another test driver making good use of his only action of the weekend, Williams' Alex Wurz, was third quickest with Honda counterpart Anthony Davidson fourth.

Jarno Trulli maintained his strong form from this morning to set the second quickest time for a racer, with the Toyota driver fifth overall.

Felipe Massa survived two off-track excursions to take sixth for Ferrari while world champion Fernando Alonso, after missing the first session to save his engine, clocked up the laps this afternoon.

But he was unable to trouble the front-runners and the Renault driver could only manage seventh fastest after pushing too hard in the closing stages and running across the grass.

Jenson Button, sporting a St George's cross helmet, was down in 17th for Honda while Red Bull's David Coulthard was 25th.

Sakon Yamamoto made his Super Aguri debut as third driver today and blotted his copybook in second practice with a spin at Stowe.

The Japanese driver, who has previous Formula One experience with Jordan, ended the session 29th, over a second slower than team-mates Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny.

Wurz was fastest when practice began this morning, although he had little opposition as only 14 drivers set a lap time.

The Austrian's lap of one minute 21.946secs edged out Honda counterpart Davidson by 0.057secs while Kubica was third. Toyota's Trulli was the fastest race driver in fourth while Michael Schumacher spun his Ferrari on his way to fifth.