Raikkonen shrugs off miserable morning

6:20pm Friday 9th May 2008

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KIMI Raikkonen shrugged off a miserable morning to set the fastest time in second practice ahead of Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.

Raikkonen managed just three laps in the morning due to a gearbox problem with his Ferrari, resulting in the Finn finishing bottom of the timesheets at the end of the initial 90 minutes.

But without the need for a gearbox change, Raikkonen - who leads the current drivers' standings by nine points from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton - edged out the Briton in the afternoon by just 0.036 seconds.

Raikkonen's lap of one minute 27.543secs was the third best of the day as team-mate Felipe Massa and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen were marginally quicker in the morning.

The conditions, though, were startlingly different to nine months ago when the race was last run on this track in blistering heat.

On this occasion temperatures were 20 degrees cooler, whilst there was even a shower prior to the start of the second session.

At least that washed some of the dirt away that had prompted all the drivers to remain in their garage for a lengthy spell at the start of the first period after completing a solitary installation lap.

Massa, Red Bull's David Coulthard and Kovalainen completed the top five behind Raikkonen and Hamilton.