Alonso on top after Indy practice

We’ve got a real race on our hands this weekend at Indianapolis if today’s practice times are anything to go by.

Once again its advantage Mclaren after Fernando Alonso finished both sessions at the top of the timesheets closely followed by Lewis Hamilton in second practice.

But the gap over Ferrari was much less than it was at Monaco and Canada. Felipe Massa went third quickest in P2, less than three tenths of a second shy of Alonso, and Kimi Raikkonen followed his Brazilian team-mate a further tenth behind. [Cont...]

You can really look at this in two ways: either Ferrari have made progress and closed the gap to Mclaren since Canada; or the tendency for the team’s cars to go well at the speedway circuit is simply masking a bigger performance gap.

However your glass is filled we are in for a close battle come race day on more than one front.

First we have this fantastic rivalry between Alonso and Hamilton. Alonso will desperately want to re-establish himself in the team and in the championship after a very public row – instigated by both drivers it has to be said – over perceived favouritism at Mclaren. And Hamilton just wants to win again, pure and simple.

For either driver to do achieve this at what is a traditional Ferrari hunting ground would be a huge coup for them and Mclaren.

Ferrari are currently some twenty points adrift in the constructor’s championship and simply have to win on Sunday at all costs. Both Massa and Raikkonen are seriously out of touch in the driver’s championship, fifteen and twenty one points respectively behind the leader.

If Ferrari are going to make any inroads in the driver’s championship they may be forced to start putting their resources behind one driver. So there is an even greater onus on Kimi Raikkoenen to get the measure of his Brazilian team-mate on Sunday.

Practice 2 session times

1.  ALONSO       McLaren       1m12.156s 
2.  HAMILTON     McLaren       1m12.309s
3.  MASSA        Ferrari       1m12.435s
4.  RAIKKONEN    Ferrari       1m12.587s
5.  HEIDFELD     BMW           1m13.026s
6.  COULTHARD    Red Bull      1m13.042s
7.  ROSBERG      Williams      1m13.057s
8.  KOVALAINEN   Renault       1m13.110s
9.  BARRICHELLO  Honda         1m13.144s
10. BUTTON       Honda         1m13.202s
11. VETTEL       BMW           1m13.217s
12. WEBBER       Red Bull      1m13.263s
13. LIUZZI       Toro Rosso    1m13.332s
14. DAVIDSON     Super Aguri   1m13.364s
15. FISICHELLA   Renault       1m13.394s
16. WURZ         Williams      1m13.539s
17. TRULLI       Toyota        1m13.692s
18. SPEED        Toro Rosso    1m13.712s
19. SATO         Super Aguri   1m13.753s
20. SCHUMACHER   Toyota        1m13.765s
21. ALBERS       Spyker        1m14.225s
22. SUTIL        Spyker        1m14.513s

Practice 1 session times:

1.  ALONSO       McLaren       1m11.925s 
2.  HEIDFELD     BMW           1m12.391s
3.  HAMILTON     McLaren       1m12.628s
4.  VETTEL       BMW           1m12.869s
5.  RAIKKONEN    Ferrari       1m12.966s
6.  ROSBERG      Williams      1m13.020s
7.  MASSA        Ferrari       1m13.040s
8.  COULTHARD    Red Bull      1m13.159s
9.  BUTTON       Honda         1m13.597s
10. WEBBER       Red Bull      1m13.682s
11. TRULLI       Toyota        1m13.777s
12. NAKAJIMA     Williams      1m13.786s
13. SCHUMACHER   Toyota        1m13.819s
14. LIUZZI       Toro Rosso    1m13.907s
15. SPEED        Toro Rosso    1m13.990s
16. FISICHELLA   Renault       1m14.000s
17. SATO         Super Aguri   1m14.037s
18. BARRICHELLO  Honda         1m14.052s
19. KOVALAINEN   Renault       1m14.189s
20. DAVIDSON     Super Aguri   1m14.632s
21. ALBERS       Spyker        1m14.636s
22. SUTIL        Spyker        1m14.810s