Practice The Friday morning practice session saw both
Ferraris top the time sheets with
Kimi Räikkönen the fastest with a time of 1:33.162 with his teammate,
Felipe Massa, just over half a second slower than the
Finn in second. The
Italian team's nearest competition was the two
McLarens of
Lewis Hamilton and
Fernando Alonso who were third and fourth respectively, Hamilton just under a second slower than Räikkönen's time. Räikkönen was fastest again in the afternoon session, clocking a time of 1:33.527, just under four tenths slower than his fastest time during the morning session. Unlike the morning session, however, Ferrari did not have both their cars occupying the top two as Massa's fastest time was fourth fastest, with Hamilton and
BMW Sauber's
Robert Kubica separating the two Ferraris. It was six thousandths of a second that prevented Räikkönen from being fastest in all three practice sessions, but his run was ended by Lewis Hamilton with the lead BMW Sauber of
Nick Heidfeld in third; Kubica fourth;
Anthony Davidson's
Super Aguri in fifth and Massa completing the top six, four tenths down on Hamilton's time.
Qualifying Qualifying was played out in temperatures of over 34 °C and despite a small shower of rain just after the morning practice session was over, the track itself was dry.
Williams' Alexander Wurz was the first out onto the circuit with former Williams drivers
David Coulthard and
Jenson Button following him. Like the first practice session on Friday, the two Ferraris set the early pace, both recording laps under 1:33.000, the only two cars to do so during Part One of Qualifying. The first six to be eliminated from qualifying were
Takuma Sato, who was seventeen thousandths of a second slower than sixteenth place Jenson Button; both
Toro Rossos of
Liuzzi and
Speed; both
Spykers of
Albers and
Sutil and David Coulthard joined Albers at the back of grid after his
Red Bull suffered a gearbox problem. The two
Toyotas of
Ralf Schumacher and
Jarno Trulli left the pits first for Part Two of qualifying. Like in the first session, Ferrari were setting the pace, this time however it was Massa who was leading the way, with both their drivers setting times under 1:32:000, only to be split to Hamilton's McLaren. Button, who only just made the cut for the second round of qualifying, was slowest in the session, over two seconds slower than Massa's time. Joining the Brit was fellow
Honda driver
Rubens Barrichello; Ralf Schumacher; Davidson;
Heikki Kovalainen and Wurz. After the race, Alonso, Räikkönen and Hamilton were equal on points. The last time the top three were level on points was in
1950 after the
Indianapolis 500. By finishing second, Hamilton became the first driver in Formula One history to finish on the podium in each of his first three World Championship Grands Prix; the previous record was two consecutive podium finishes, achieved by
Peter Arundell in the
1964 season. ==Classification==