Alex Wurz sets the Friday pace

teamcar - The teams permitted to run third drivers dominated the Friday afternoon practice session today at Interlagos. Free of such concerns such as tyre preservation and engine mileage restrictions, it was Alex Wurz who set the pace for Williams Cosworth with a best lap of 1:12.547s, over a second faster than Kimi Raikkonen’s morning best.

With Wurz out front in what may well be the final race in F1 for Cosworth, Anthony Davidson was very busy on his Honda as he completed some 37 timed laps and took the second fastest time. Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in his BMW Sauber.

Jarno Trulli was the fastest race driver which will be of encouragement to the Toyota team after their rather low-key home race at Suzuka last time out. Trulli set a best time of 1:13.483s to pip Honda’s Jenson Button by just two-thousandths of a second.

Michael Schumacher set the sixth fastest time and like fellow racers will have opted to use just one set of tyres in Friday practice. Schumacher was 1.1 seconds off the ultimate pace, but being Friday practice, this in reality means almost nothing. Perhaps more significantly was the pace of Felipe Massa in the sister 248 F1.

Sporting green and yellow overall for his home event at Interlagos, Massa found himself just 17th as the chequered flag flew. There is undoubtedly more pace to come from the Turkish Grand Prix winner.