Ferrari lay down marker in France

FERRARI dominated yesterday’s practice at the French Grand Prix, suggesting the former champions may be back on form after losing ground to McLaren.

Brazilian Felipe Massa set the fastest time in the second session with a lap of one minute 15.453 seconds, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen just behind.

The positions were reversed in the morning session, when Finn Raikkonen was fastest in 1:15.382.

The Ferraris were well clear of the McLaren drivers throughout the day.

World championship leader Lewis Hamilton was the faster of the two silver cars in the afternoon, setting the fourth fastest time.

He was 0.327secs adrift of Massa and just behind the Toro Rosso of American Scott Speed.

Hamilton’s team-mate Fernando Alonso was only eighth fastest in the afternoon — more than 0.2secs slower than the Englishman.

But the world champion had been third fastest behind the Ferraris in the morning session, when Hamilton was only sixth, 0.123secs behind.

Alonso said the times did not reflect McLaren’s potential for the race.

“We could have been faster today,” he said, “and there is still a little bit of work to do tomorrow on the set-up.

“However I think we will be stronger over the weekend than we appear today and so I am not too worried about the results so far.”

Hamilton leads the world championship by 10 points from Alonso heading into tomorrow’s race, with Massa a further nine points adrift.

Hamilton suffered his first technical failure this season in the morning session.

The 22-year-old pulled off at the Adelaide hairpin before completing a timed lap when the engine protection system kicked in as the Mercedes unit was running too cool.