By Jonathan Noble
Kimi Raikkonen led the way on the second day of testing at Paul Ricard in France on Thursday, as teams completed their preparations for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver eclipsed Lewis Hamilton's best effort from the first day to set a fastest lap of one minute 05.381 seconds - less than one tenth of a second ahead of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen.

Robert Kubica, keen to get his team back fighting McLaren and Ferrari after a disappointing Turkish Grand Prix, was third quickest - just more than four tenths behind Kovalainen.

David Coulthard continued to show the improving form of Red Bull Racing's RB4 to set the fourth fastest time, ahead of Jenson Button in the Honda Racing RA108 and Sebastien Bourdais in the new STR3.

Scuderia Toro Rosso will have taken great heart from the performance of the STR3, which was able to complete a race distance in the afternoon ahead of its scheduled debut in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Jarno Trulli was seventh fastest, ahead of Nelson Piquet and Kazuki Nakajima. Force India duo Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella were at the bottom of the timesheets after sharing their car over the day.

The day marked one of those rare occasions when a test was not interrupted by red flags.

The test continues tomorrow using a different configuration of the Paul Ricard circuit that will simulate the low-downforce settings required for the Canadian Grand Prix.


Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:05.381 102
2. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:05.471 89
3. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:05.905 135
4. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:06.001 82
5. Button Honda (B) 1:06.091 155
6. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:06.125 110
7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:06.205 120
8. Piquet Renault (B) 1:06.355 193
9. Nakajima Williams (B) 1:07.080 129
10. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:07.104 56
11. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:07.123 64


All Timing Unofficial