There was no love lost between McLaren star Lewis Hamilton and Formula One Championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari after Friday’s free practice sessions in the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Hamilton, the outsider in the four-way duel for the F1 Drivers’ title, made his presence felt when he blazed away under lights to return the fastest lap of the day.
The 2008 world champion, trailing Fernando Alonso in the standings by 24 points, finished with a scorching lap of one minute 40.888 seconds after being second best in the opening 90-minute session.
Needing a victory to stand any chance of winning his second Formula One world title, Hamilton has nothing left to lose in comparison to his three title rivals.
He was 0.257 seconds ahead of German Sebastian Vettel who clocked the best time of 1:42.760 in the first session.
“That wasn’t bad, the car felt strong early afternoon, although tonight it was a bit different due to the conditions. All in all I was pretty happy. I think there is some lap time still to gain,” said Vettel.
His Red Bull team mate Australian Mark Webber came fourth in both sessions clocking a best lap time of 1:41.315 in the second session.
"We had an engine change in between the two sessions, which was planned. The car is close what we had in Brazil. It’s hard to develop a car which is pretty solid already,” said Webber.
Hamilton, though, was reprimanded by the stewards after an incident with Bruno Senna in which he appeared to cut across the Hispania driver.
On a hot lap, Hamilton was initially forced to run wide around the final corner as a slowing Senna had eased off near the entrance to the pit lane.
Apparently frustrated, Hamilton then instantly dived in front of the Brazilian and into the pit lane. His McLaren team mate Jenson Button was fine 1,000 euros for speeding above the limit in the pit lane.
“It was nothing. Bruno and I have no problems, it was just a misunderstanding,” explained Hamilton. “He was trying to start his lap, I was trying to come in. I’ll speak to Bruno to make sure everything is cool.”
It leaves Hamilton free to focus on a weekend in which he may yet secure his first win since Canada in June. “The car felt good, although I’ve felt a little bit ill. I’ve been on some meds, but I’m a bit better,” added Hamilton.
“Out of this weekend, of all the weekends, I feel we do have the car to challenge, and rather than fighting for fourth I think we will be fighting for the front row. I’m giving it 120 percent.”
Hamilton and Vettel clearly enjoy this track as the former was on pole last year, whilst the latter went onto win the race after the Briton had retired with a mechanical problem.
Behind them came the leading two title contenders, with Alonso in his Ferrari finishing 0.426secs off Hamilton and just a thousandth of a second ahead of his closest
championship challenger in Webber.
A 20-minute downpour dampened the track in the morning.
“I don’t really care about Lewis (Hamilton). He is really in the timetables today. For us it was a good Friday. We managed to do a lot of laps,” said Alonso when asked how he felt about Hamilton pulling ahead of the Red Bull duo.
“For sure Red Bull are still favourites for tomorrow. Hopefully McLaren can do a good job here and be on pole but I guess Red Bull was not 100 per cent today,” said the two-time world champion who had an uneasy relationship with Hamilton at McLaren last season.
Alonso, 29, who is aiming to become the youngest triple world champion having an eight-point cushion in Abu Dhabi, was pleased with his overall performance.
“In terms of time on the track, in terms of how competitive we are, it was a good Friday. We ended up with a good level of grip. In Bahrain, Singapore, Korea and here, every lap you do, you feel better and better with the grip,” said the Ferrari ace.
For a moment there was the sight of a Ferrari crawling to a halt 23 minutes from the end of the run that likely quickened a few pulses in both the Ferrari and Red Bull garages.
With Alonso using his final engine for the season that apparently has little life left in yet, Red Bull’s potential joy was shortlived however as it was Felipe Massa who was forced to stop.
The Brazilian ultimately finished sixth overall behind Renault's Robert Kubica, who was again the best of the rest as in the first session.
Massa sandwiched the Renaults as Vitaly Petrov was seventh, with Jenson Button a lowly eighth as he again struggled with brake issues.
Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi was in eighth, followed by Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, with Senna at the back of the field, 6.5 seconds behind Hamilton.
FREE PRACTICE TIMES
1 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 1 minute 40.888 seconds
2 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) 1:41.145 (+0.257)
3 Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) 1:41.314 (+0.426)
4 Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) 1:41.315 (+0.427)
5 Robert Kubica (Renault) 1:41.576 (+0.688)
6 Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:41.583 (+0.695)
7 Vitaly Petrov (Renault) 1:42.096 (+1.208)
8 Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:42.132 (+1.244)
9 Tonio Liuzzi (Force India-Mercedes) 1:42.203 (+1.315)
10 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:42.222 (+1.334)
11 Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) 1:42.246 (+1.358)
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Williams-Cosworth) 1:42.449 (+1.561)
13 Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) 1:42.535 (+1.647)
14 Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) 1:42.768 (+1.880)
15 Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) 1:42.914 (+2.026)
16 Nick Heidfeld (Sauber-Ferrari) 1:42.950 (+2.062)
17 Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:43.128 (+2.240)
18 Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:43.584 (+2.696)
19 Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus-Cosworth) 1:45.180 (+4.292)
20 Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) 1:45.259 (+4.371)
21 Jarno Trulli (Lotus-Cosworth) 1:45.612 (+4.724)
22 Lucas di Grassi (Virgin-Cosworth) 1:46.053 (+5.165)
23 Christian Klien (Hispania-Cosworth) 1:47.210 (+6.322)
24 Bruno Senna (Hispania-Cosworth) 1:47.434 (+6.546)
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