Practice 2 Report - Renault's Friday dream

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in the Friday afternoon session for the French Grand Prix in his Renault, suggesting that the French company is keen for a bit of publicity in its home race. Renault showed earlier this year in Spain that it is not averse to a little fiddling with fuel loads to create unrealistic impressions and will no doubt pay the price on Sunday afternoon when the team will be found out in racing conditions. Either that or the team has made a monstrous leap forward, something which never happens in modern Formula 1.

The order behind Alonso was much more likely with Felipe Massa, who had been fastest in the morning session, fastest from Kimi Raikkonen and the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. Beyond that there times were rather confused with Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso, Robert Kubica in a BMW, Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren, Nick Heidfeld in the second BMW and Nelson Piquet in a rather more sensible spot for a Renault.

The next up was David Coulthard in his Red Bull ahead of Nico Rosberg's Williams, Jarno Trulli's Toyota, Sebastien Bourdais in the second Toro Rosso, and Kazuki Nakajima's Williams.

The field was completed by Timo Glock's Toyota, Mark Webber's Red Bull, Jenson Button's Honda, Giancarlo Fisichella's Force India, Rubens Barrichello in the second Honda and Adrian Sutil in the second Force India.

There were several incidents but no-one did any serious damage.