Massa keeps Ferrari to the fore

Formula One: Felipe Massa underlined Ferrari's dominant recent form by setting the fastest lap in second practice for the Hungarian…

Formula One: Felipe Massa underlined Ferrari's dominant recent form by setting the fastest lap in second practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring this afternoon.

Massa's best effort of one minute 21.778 seconds was a massive 1.319secs faster than Fernando Alonso, who had Renault team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella just behind in third.

World champion Alonso has seen his standings lead over Massa's team-mate Michael Schumacher slashed over the last three races, all of which have gone the Ferrari driver's way.

Schumacher was less spectacular though and ended up eighth, over two seconds slower than Massa in a session where teams concentrate on set-up rather than lap times.

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That fact was underlined by Kimi Raikkonen's first-practice time, which ended up being the fastest of the day at 1min 21.624secs.

Raikkonen did not show that pace in the second session though and ended up four seconds adrift in 25th.

Robert Doornbos enjoyed the rare honour of being fastest test driver, taking his Red Bull to fourth overall, ahead of Honda counterpart Anthony Davidson.

Toyota put in an encouraging display as they chase down Honda in the fight for fourth in the constructors' championship. Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli were sixth and seventh respectively.

Jenson Button was down in 14th place for Honda while David Coulthard took 24th in his Red Bull.

Robert Kubica finally completed his first laps as a BMW-Sauber race driver after stepping up to replace Jacques Villeneuve, who is suffering the after-effects of a race-ending crash last weekend.

The Pole, who did not leave the pits this morning, was 10th in the afternoon and only narrowly beaten by team-mate Nick Heidfeld.