Hamilton puts McLaren ahead in final practice 07 Apr 2007
Lewis Hamilton signalled that Ferrari may have opposition in Sepang this weekend, by setting the fastest time for McLaren in Saturday morning’s practice session ahead of qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The 22 year-old Englishman lapped his MP4-22 in 1m 34.811s to outrun world champion team mate Fernando Alonso by exactly half a second, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa separating the two after a late improvement to 1m 34.953s.
Robert Kubica took his BMW Sauber round in 1m 35.385s to pip the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen for fourth, the Finn lapping in 1m 35.498s. All of the quick times came on Bridgestone’s softer tyre compound.
A late flurry of faster times saw Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld’s respective laps of 1m 35.770s and 1m 36.160s threatened, but ultimately they held on to sixth and seventh for Williams and BMW Sauber respectively.
Anthony Davidson suddenly bounced up to eighth for Super Aguri, his lap of 1m 36.195s highlighting the disaster that Honda face, with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello 17th and 19th respectively on 1m 36.658s and 1m 36.972s. Davidson’s team mate Takuma Sato was 16th, on 1m 36.545s.
Ralf Schumacher was another late improver for Toyota, on 1m 36.245s, ahead of the Red Bull trio of Mark Webber (1m 36.257s), David Coulthard (1m 36.273s) and Tonio ‘Toro Rosso’ Liuzzi (1m 36.297s). Scott Speed wasn’t far behind them, in 15th on 1m 36.501s.
Between the two Toro Rosso pilots sat Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 36.434s) and Williams’ Alex Wurz (1m 36.473s), while Heikki Kovalainen did only a handful of laps for his 18th fastest 1m 36.876s after a fuel pressure problem obliged Renault to fit his engine into the spare R27.
At the back, Jarno Trulli continued to struggle for balance on his Toyota, with a lap of 1m 37.473s, just ahead of the Spykers of Adrian Sutil (1m 38.018s) and Christijan Albers (1m 38.225s).
