Lotus have handed Raikkonen a long-wheelbase car for this weekend in a bid to
seek any advantage they can find, and although the 33-year- old was four
tenths of a second faster than Grosjean in FP1, they could not be separated
in FP2.
The Finn, overlooked by Red Bull for the seat due to be vacated by Webber at
the end of the year, is desperate to close the 63-point gap to Vettel after
suffering his first retirement for 39 races last time out at Spa.
Fellow title challengers Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso also need to
outshine Vettel this weekend as they trail the German by 58 and 46 points
respectively.
On home soil in front of the Ferrari fans, Alonso had to settle for fifth
quickest, with Hamilton sixth just ahead of Mercedes’ team-mate Nico
Rosberg, with the trio covered by 0.037secs.
Felipe Massa clawed his way up to eighth in his Ferrari, followed by the
McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, with the trio all just over a
second back.
Force India’s Paul Di Resta was 11th in his Force India, 1.377secs adrift,
with Max Chilton down in 19th in his Marussia, but for once ahead of
team-mate Jules Bianchi, who was slowest at 3.604secs down.
Edited by Thom Gibbs