Hamilton, Schumacher head quickest practice lap times

SHANGHAI, China- Taking advantage of damp weather on Friday following a long, three week break, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher held the quickest times for the 1st and 2nd practice sessions, respectively, for Sunday’s Grand Prix of China at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Considering the fact that the Briton is handed a five grid penalty for changing his Mercedes engine earlier, Hamilton felt that he could still place high on race day.

“We look competitive,” said Hamilton. “We still need to make improvements, but our car looks good. I t is going to be a close qualifying session tomorrow-it will be a good battle and hopefully we can start as high up the grid as possible because we still believe that we’ll be in the race and among the leading group. I love the challenge of coming through and gaining positions.”

Hamilton certainly got his wish in the first session, which affected everyone on the track. But Mark Webber in his Red Bull Renault, starting things off quick by utilizing the standard team set up on the exhaust system that gave the Australian a 1:39: 558, which lasted a while until Nico Rosberg smashed it with a better time of 1:38:116. But at the end, it was Hamilton, with a 1:37: 106 best time that got things started for the rest of the day. Encountering problems with his DRS system, Kimi Raikkonen had a horrible 1:50:465, which put him at the bottom of the time sheet. But the Finnish pilot felt that his Lotus should be ready on race day.

But even that most drivers were hoping for better weather conditions for the afternoon session, it was not to be. The continuing damp conditions were a problem, especially for Maurussia’s Timo Glock, who went off the track at turn one and damaged his front nose cone. But Hamilton continued to improve his times, and despite suffering from locking front brakes, he managed to improve his earlier morning time with his best time of the entire day of 1:: 36:145 which at this point only Defending World Champion Sebastian Vettel could get close in his Red Bull, posting a close 1:36:170.

But the man with the fastest time of not only the session, but of the entire day was Schumacher, who set a 1:35:973, just edging out Hamilton and proving to the others that he still has what it takes to challenge the younger drivers.

“It was a trouble free day, and I am quite happy with how our car is handling so far out here.” Said Schumacher. “The balance of the car was reasonably good, and obviously a balanced car contributes a lot to lap time. As a team, we are a lot stronger in certain areas this season, and we have a much better base to work from, although we are not quite where we want to be with this car yet, but I am confident that we will get there.”

Schumacher’s honesty here is showing that after a bad start in Australia and a tenth place finish in the last round in Malaysia is giving him the confidence that soon might become results on race day.