Magny Cours: Technical hiccups continued to plague Adrian Sutil, while Giancarlo Fisichella did slightly better by clocking the 18th fastest time in the second practice session ahead of Sunday’s French Grand Prix here on Friday.

Sutil could complete just 13 laps in the morning session due to his brake problem and the outfit decided to end the session early and change the brake callipers for the afternoon.

The German put in 33 laps in the second practice but still reported a lack of grip in the warm temperatures of the afternoon.

Fisichella finished 19th in the first session and 18th in the second. The Italian completed his programme with 27 laps in the morning and 42 in the afternoon.

With a best lap of 1:17.394, Fisichella was 18th fastest in the second session, just over 1.5secs from the fastest time of the afternoon.

“I was struggling under braking and in this morning I lost a lot of the session. In the afternoon, the track was slower as the temperature increased and it was difficult to get the tyres to work well again…But now we have found the problem and can get it fixed for tomorrow (Saturday),” Sutil said.

Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said it was a typical first day, doing the normal programme of set up work and tyre evaluation.

“Adrian struggled a bit with the car under braking all day and we need to work on this tomorrow (Saturday). We nevertheless managed to complete our programme with no major issues.

“The tyre position looks fairly clear now and we have established a fair set-up, so overall a reasonable first day for us,” he said.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set the pace in free practice with a time inside the circuit’s race lap record. The Brazilian, who started on pole position at Magny-Cours last year but has yet to win in France, lapped fastest in the morning with a time of one minute 15.306 seconds.

“It was a good day, apart from a slightly tight neck which I began to feel this morning,” said Massa.“So as not to take any risks, I chose to avoid doing too many runs of several laps. I therefore concentrated on the car's set-up.”

Renault’s double world champion Fernando Alonso, preparing for the car company's home race on Sunday, topped the timesheets in the afternoon with a lap of 1:15.778. Massa was second, a mere 0.076 slower.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who will be penalised 10 places on the starting grid after a pit lane collision with world champion Kimi Raikkonen's stationary Ferrari in Canada, was second and fourth in the two sessions.

Massa's best time compared to his 2007 pole of 1:15.034 and retired Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher's 2004 race lap record of 1:15.377.