Raikkonen tops second Bahrain free practice

MANAMA (AFP) –

Lotus F1 Team’s Kimi Raikkonen during the second practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama, on April 19, 2013. Raikkonen has topped the times for Lotus in the second free practice session for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen topped the times for Lotus in Friday afternoon’s second free practice session for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Driving with typical aggression and aplomb, the “Ice Man” clocked a best time of 1min 34.154sec on his medium tyres midway through the 90 minutes to outpace nearest rival Australian Mark Webber of Red Bull by 0.03sec.

Webber, preparing for his 200th Formula One race on Sunday, clocked 1:34.184 to finish ahead of his third placed team-mate defending triple champion German Sebastian Vettel by almost one-tenth of a second.

After the agony and angst of their early-season intra-team problems — triggered by the ruthless Vettel’s decision to ignore team orders and snatch victory from Webber in Malaysia — the Australian demonstrated that he has no intention of doing anything other than racing to win.

To achieve that, however, he may have to overcome an expected strong challenge from in-form Ferrari.

Two-time champion and winner of last Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix Spaniard Fernando Alonso was fourth for the “scarlet scuderia” ahead of Briton Paul di Resta of Force India, Brazilian Felipe Massa — who had been quickest in the morning’s opening session — and Frenchman Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus.

German Nico Rosberg was eighth for Mercedes ahead of compatriot Adrian Sutil in the second Force India car and Briton Lewis Hamilton, in the second Mercedes.

Briton Jenson Button, seeking to close the performance gap to the leaders in his improving McLaren, was unable to rise beyond 11th, a full 1.2sec slower than Raikkonen on another hot and testing day at the Sakhir circuit, 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) into the desert from Manama.

The track temperature was 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and the air temperature a relatively moderate 33 degrees on the circuit — slightly cooler and more comfortable conditions than the previous day.

Opposition groups demanding more political freedoms in the Gulf kingdom have announced plans to protest as practice got under way and after clashes between radical groups and police overnight.

But there was no evidence of unrest in and around the track.

Several armoured security vehicles were used to slow and check traffic or were parked discreetly in the shade, an AFP reporter at the track said.

There were no signs of security worries among the teams, the reporter added, after the FIA governing body and F1 promoters insisted the race would go ahead as planned.