Fisichella: a Friday spent learning to deal with curbs and use the KERS

The repercussions of Felipe Massa's accident in Budapest continue to be felt for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, as another Italian driver will make his debut in the Prancing Horse car this weekend. For Giancarlo Fisichella, this morning's first free practice was the moment he had been waiting for all his life, ever since second place at the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago when he got the call and, possibly, since he was a child! The Roman pushed hard during the three hours available, trying to find harmony with the car, without forgetting all the buttons and controls found on the steering wheel and trying to control the power of the KERS for the first time, as the His previous team never used this system. He also admitted that it takes some time to learn not to ride on curbs, but this problem probably affects all other drivers too, as the Monza circuit modified them last year in an attempt to prevent drivers from get on it, especially in bends and chicanes. Giancarlo was eighth fastest in the morning and twentieth in the afternoon, but Friday's times mean even less than usual here, as the extremely fast nature of the track produces very close times. In fact, this afternoon's top 14, including Kimi Raikkonen in eighth place, are all grouped together within the space of a second. Giancarlo was approximately six tenths of a second off the fastest time, which was set by his until recently teammate, Adrian Sutil, aboard the Force India.

Newcomer Romain Grosjean came in second place, ahead of his Renault teammate Fernando Alonso. Fourth place went to Heikki Kovalainen, with Robert Kubica fifth in the BMW and Timo Glock sixth in the Toyota.