Massa quickest in rain-soaked second practice

Silverstone, United Kingdom, July 8, 2011 (AFP) - Felipe Massa topped the times for Ferrari during Friday afternoon's rain-soaked second practice for Sunday's British Grand Prix.

Heavy rain drenched the Silverstone circuit during the early part of the session and prevented drivers from setting times.

However, the 30-year-old Brazilian, fifth fastest in the morning, clocked a time of one minute 49.967 seconds on his final lap of the session as the track began to dry.

That meant he was almost a second quicker than nearest rival German Nico Rosberg of Mercedes. "It seems to me that the car handles pretty well in the wet, which is a positive in terms of the rest of the weekend, given there's a chance of more rain," said Massa.

However, Massa admitted he had found the conditions tricky. "It was the last lap so the track was getting better," he said. "It was the last lap of the day. It was a difficult day -- before the second session we thought it was going to be dry but then it started to rain."

"We haven't been able to run in the dry, so it was a difficult day for everybody."

Sauber driver Japanese Kamui Kobayashi was third quickest ahead of McLaren drivers and fellow Britons Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button who were fourth and fifth quickest respectively.

Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Scot Paul Di Resta were sixth and seventh fastest followed by Rubens Barrichello of Williams. Sauber driver Mexican Sergio Perez was ninth fastest ahead of Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso who completed the top ten.

Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher was 12th quickest in the second Mercedes, while Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso was 15th quickest followed by Red Bull's Mark Webber.

Title-race leader and defending drivers' champion German Sebastian Vettel also of Red Bull was 18th fastest.

Massa said the conditions had made it impossible to fully test his car's new upgraded set-up and said he hoped for a dry final practice ahead of qualifying on Saturday.

"I hope it's dry in the morning because then we have one session to prepare the set-up of the car," he said. "We put everything together for what works in the dry but we haven't tried it yet. It's the same for everybody. It's not like some people got to drive in the dry and you didn't.

"But if it's dry just for qualifying or the race, I hope that we can find the right direction and you have the best set-up and configurations for the dry conditions."

Here are the times: