Drivers

Pos Driver AUS MAL BHR ESP MON CAN USA FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR Pts 1 Lewis Hamilton 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 3 3 9 1 5 84 2 Fernando Alonso 2 1 5 3 1 7 2 7 2 1 4 3 79 3 Felipe Massa 6 5 1 1 3 DSQ 3 2 5 2 13 1 69 4 Kimi Räikkönen 1 3 3 Ret 8 5 4 1 1 Ret 2 2 68 5 Nick Heidfeld 4 4 4 Ret 6 2 Ret 5 6 6 3 4 47 6 Robert Kubica Ret 18 6 4 5 Ret INJ 4 4 7 5 8 29 7 Heikki Kovalainen 10 8 9 7 13* 4 5 15 7 8 8 6 19 8 Giancarlo Fisichella 5 6 8 9 4 DSQ 9 6 8 10 12 9 17 9 Alexander Wurz Ret 9 11 Ret 7 3 10 14 13 4 14 11 13 10 Nico Rosberg 7 Ret 10 6 12 10 16* 9 12 Ret 7 7 9 11 Mark Webber 13 10 Ret Ret Ret 9 7 12 Ret 3 9 Ret 8 12 David Coulthard Ret Ret Ret 5 14 Ret Ret 13 11 5 11 10 8 13 Jarno Trulli 9 7 7 Ret 15 Ret 6 Ret Ret 13 10 16 7 14 Ralf Schumacher 8 15 12 Ret 16 8 Ret 10 Ret Ret 6 12 5 15 Takuma Sato 12 13 Ret 8 17 6 Ret 16 14 Ret 15 18 4 16 Jenson Button 15 12 Ret 12 11 Ret 12 8 10 Ret Ret 13 1 17 Sebastian Vettel 8 16 19 1 18 Rubens Barrichello 11 11 13 10 10 12 Ret 11 9 11 18 17 0 19 Scott Speed Ret 14 Ret Ret 9 Ret 13 Ret Ret Ret 0 20 Anthony Davidson 16 16 16* 11 18 11 11 Ret Ret 12 Ret 14 0 21 Adrian Sutil 17 Ret 15 13 Ret Ret 14 17 Ret Ret 17 21 0 22 Christijan Albers Ret Ret 14 14 19* Ret 15 Ret 15 0 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi 14 17 Ret Ret Ret Ret 17* Ret 16* Ret Ret 15 0 24 Sakon Yamamoto Ret 20 0 Markus Winkelhock Ret 0 * Driver did not finish but was classified, having completed more than 90% of race distance. From Wikipedia

Despite a loose drain cover held up Friday’s second practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton split the top times with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the second practice session after Kimi had exceled in the first.

Raikkonen led the morning session with a time of 1 minute, 27.988 seconds on the 3.316-mile Istanbul Park circuit, ahead of his teammate Felipe Massa, while Hamilton was fastest in the afternoon, clocking 1:28.469 with Kimi and Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher in third.

Kimi was half a second faster in the first session, however its believed his team were experimenting with a light fuel load, as the Istanbul track is open to bothe one and two stop approaches.

Here are the session two practice times:

1. HAMILTON      McLaren      1m28.469s
2. RAIKKONEN     Ferrari      1m28.762s
3. R SCHUMACHER  Toyota       1m28.773s
4. TRULLI        Toyota       1m28.874s
5. MASSA         Ferrari      1m28.884s
6. ALONSO        Mclaren      1m28.947s
7. ROSBERG       Williams     1m28.995s
8. KOVALAINEN    Renault      1m29.025s
9. WURZ          Williams     1m29.093s
10. KUBICA        BMW          1m29.368s
11. COULTHARD     Red Bull     1m29.435s
12. FISICHELLA    Renault      1m29.456s
13. HEIDFELD      BMW          1m29.792s
14. BUTTON        Honda        1m29.945s
15. BARRICHELLO   Honda        1m30.055s
16. SATO          Super Aguri  1m30.104s
17. WEBBER        Red Bull     1m30.314s
18. DAVIDSON      Super Aguri  1m30.530s
19. LIUZZI        Toro Rosso   1m30.702s
20. VETTEL        Toro Rosso   1m30.801s
21. SUTIL         Spyker       1m31.153s
22. YAMAMOTO      Spyker       1m31.175s

As this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix approaches, the focus turns from Hamiltons love life, back to the F1 circuit.

Newspapers have been quiet lately apart from news that Hamilton was seen on Holiday with Sarah Ojjeh, eighteen year old daughter of one of the Mclaren team founders and oil magnate, and inevitably the scorn of his ex girlfriend Jodia Ma.

Now Hamilton will be focusing on qualifying at Istanbul Park on Friday and Saturday.

Istanbul Park is one of the only two tracks on the calendar to run anticlockwise and both Alonso and Hamilton have done quite well there:

Alonso has finished second in Turkey for the two years the event has been run.

“It is always great to have a break and recharge the batteries, but it is fantastic to be getting back out on track,” said the 26-year-old Spaniard.

Hamilton finished second in Istanbul a year ago en route to winning the GP2 title - but  that was after a few spins off the track!

“I have great memories of the Istanbul Park,” remarked Hamilton.

“Last year was a defining race in the GP2 championship for me. It felt like a win and it would be great to get on the top step this year.”

Hamilton added: “During the short summer break I have been keeping up with my training to ensure I am fully prepared for this race.”