Barcelona: Friday free practice report

Heikki Kovalainen gets the best time of Montmelo

World Series by Nissan points leader Heikki Kovalainen went fastest in both of today's official free practice sessions ahead of this weekend's latest round at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The Finn ended up 0.374 seconds ahead of Pons Racing team-mate Adrian Valles, who was showing some of his best form of the season.

Kovalainen was particularly pleased as teams prepare for a World Series first tomorrow, when cars will qualify in a Super Pole session in which they will run one at a time and complete just one lap. "The important thing now is to get the tyres working straight away, so we had to put a more aggressive set-up on the car," he said. "Everything felt OK and I didn't have to do anything crazy -- but you never know what the others are doing and I think it will be tight tomorrow."

The Renault-backed driver comes to Barcelona straight after three days of testing for the manufacturer's Formula 1 team at Jerez. "All three days went very well," he said. "I didn't make any mistakes and my driving improved all the time. But getting back into the World Series by Nissan car you have to remember not to brake so late!"

Portuguese racer Tiago Monteiro was third fastest for Carlin Motorsport, while Frenchman Tristan Gommendy slipped from second in the morning to end up fourth in his Saulnier Racing machine. Team-mate Sergio Hernandez was sixth, with Felix Porteiro -- on his first outing with Epsilon Euskadi -- just in front.

It wasn't a similar theme in World Series Lights, where points leader Milos Pavlovic was pipped by Vergani Formula team-mate Matteo Pellegrino by the tiny margin of 0.004 seconds. Juan Antonio del Pino (Epsilon Sport) was third fastest.

In the Formula Junior field, Belgian Michael Herck ended up a comfortable 0.811 seconds clear of Marco Barba, with Dani Clos in third place.

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