Hamilton Proves He's Got What It Takes
By Emma Aitken
March 21 2008
Just when Ferrari thought they had it in the bag, Lewis came out at the end of the second practise session of Malaysia and showed them they certainly hadn't. Kovalainen could only manage eighth though. He came out while the track was busy and it held him up slightly.
True to form, Lewis Hamilton came out on soft Bridgestone tires as free practise ended and knocked Massa off his top spot on the time sheets. Up until that point Ferrari looked set to complete the practise session with a dominant one-two result. Raikkonen had held the fastest lap for an hour before Massa came in with a 1m35.206.
But Hamilton came out and ruined the party with a 1m35.055. Jenson Button’s last ditch attempt to put in a good time proved extremely successful as he charged up the timings to finish in fourth. Proving once again what a great young driver he is, Sebastian Vettel finished the day fifth fastest. Jarno Trulli made an improvement on his earlier performance by completing his session in sixth. Kovalainen, in the other McLaren got caught up in the end of session traffic and came in just behind Trulli’s Toyota.
Kubica, in eighth managed to be the best performer out of the Williams/BMW wrangle. A name you would be surprised to find up in that mix would be Fisichella’s. He positively threw his Force India car round Sepang to take an impressive ninth spot. Alonso had problems with a broken second gear and could only manage 14th.
As in the previous session, Piquet; his rookie team mate, finished just behind him. Bourdais’ Toro Rosso gave up the ghost on his out lap and so failed to put in a time. Following on from his earlier crash, David Coulthard went nowhere as the Red Bull Racing Team got to work preparing the damage.
| 1 | Hamilton | McLaren | 1m35.055 | ||
| 2 | Massa | Ferrari | 1m35.206 | ||
| 3 | Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m35.428 | ||
| 4 | Button | Honda | 1m36.037 | ||
| 5 | Vettel | Toro Rosso | 1m36.474 | ||
| 6 | Trulli | Toyota | 1m36.493 | ||
| 7 | Kovalainen | McLaren | 1m36.512 | ||
| 8 | Kubica | BMW | 1m36.671 | ||
| 9 | Fisichella | Force India | 1m36.756 | ||
| 10 | Nakajima | Williams | 1m36.838 | ||
| 11 | Barrichello | Honda | 1m36.879 | ||
| 12 | Rosberg | Williams | 1m36.908 | ||
| 13 | Heidfeld | BMW | 1m37.106 | ||
| 14 | Alonso | Renault | 1m37.328 | ||
| 15 | Piquet | Renault | 1m37.331 | ||
| 16 | Webber | Red Bull Racing | 1m37.346 | ||
| 17 | Glock | Toyota | 1m37.512 | ||
| 18 | Sutil | Force India | 1m37.614 | ||
| 19 | Sato | Super Aguri | 1m39.021 | ||
| 20 | Davidson | Super Aguri | 1m39.361 | ||
| 21 | Bourdais | Toro Rosso | No Time | ||
| 22 | Coulthard | Red Bull Racing | No Time | ||