Hamilton serves notice to Ferraris
LEWIS Hamilton served notice Ferrari will not have it all their own way this weekend after the McLaren driver led the way in second free practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Felipe Massa had dominated the first session and the Ferraris had once again held the upper hand for the majority of the second 90-minute practice period.
But Hamilton produced a lap of one minute 35.055 seconds, the fastest of the day, to edge out Massa by just over a tenth of a second with Kimi Raikkonen 0.373secs back in third, demonstrating the championship pacesetter will be a force to be reckoned with in Sepang.
Raikkonen had set a time of 1min 36.045secs early in the session, which proved the benchmark for a period until the Finn shattered his own mark by over four tenths.
Sebastian Vettel then jumped into a surprise second place with a strong effort, posting a lap of 1:36.474secs before first Hamilton and then Massa surpassed the Toro Rosso.
Hamilton had edged into second with a time of 1:36.414secs, which he subsequently improved, but Massa leapfrogged the Brit by seven tenths before going even quicker, the Brazilian's effort of 1:35.687secs marginally trailing that of team-mate Raikkonen.
But it was not long before Massa hit the front and then extended his advantage after crossing the line in 1:35:206secs.
Raikkonen tried to hit back, but his time of 1:35:592secs was only a slight improvement on his best.
And as the session wound down, Hamilton produced his late effort and one that neither Massa nor Raikkonen could better, though the latter did go quicker in recording a lap of 1:35.428.
Jenson Button snatched fourth place late on, albeit nearly a second off the pace, to raise hopes Honda could be battling for points on Sunday, while Vettel eventually claimed fifth.
Jarno Trulli was sixth in the Toyota, Heikki Kovalainen seventh in the second McLaren while Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber rounded out the top eight.
David Coulthard did not take part in the second run after his Red Bull was badly damaged in the opening session, while Anthony Davidson again struggled down in 20th, his Super Aguri trailing Hamilton by over four seconds.
Massa had earlier topped the timesheets during first free practice as Raikkonen and Hamilton both saw their sessions end prematurely.
The Brazilian was untouchable around the 5.543km Sepang circuit, his time of one minute 35.392 seconds a second faster than the rest of the field.
But Raikkonen saw his Ferrari come to a halt after only eight laps of running, while Hamilton's McLaren crawled back to the pits towards the end of the 90-minute period.
12:22pm Friday 21st March 2008
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