UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Hamilton for hat-trick?

Piquet second fastest!

Lewis Hamilton has set himself up for a shot at a hat-trick of grand prix victories after setting the fastest time of the day in the second session of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver was able to answer every challenge thrown at him by team mates and foes as he scorched the Hungarian track to record a best time of 1:20.554. His team mate Heikki Kovalainen was able to set the fastest time early on in the session but was unable to respond to the ferocity of his team mate’s challenge and settled for third.

In a surprising second position was the driver who replaced Kovalainen, Nelson Piquet of the Renault team. He and team mate Fernando Alonso set a good pace in the Renault cars which seem to have made a remarkable improvement in the second half of the season.

Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were fifth and sixth respectively in what would be called a disappointing session for both drivers as they failed to beat their times from first practice.

Nick Heidfeld and team mate Robert Kubica made some improvement in the BMW, but would also be disappointed that they have dropped from obvious podium challenger to battling the Renault and Toyota teams for supremacy in the midfield.

Jarno Trulli was ninth in the first of the Toyota's, which were slower than their first session times, but still impressive enough early on. Nico Rosberg in the Williams split Timo Glock from the back of Trulli to round out the top ten.

Red Bull would be very disappointed after having impressed so much in Britain, to have dropped outside the top ten in both sessions. Mark Webber was 12th and David Coulthard was 13th.

The second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima was in 14th, with Sebastien Bourdais in the Toro Rosso was 15th. The next four positions were filled by the Honda and Force India drivers with Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella 16th and 17th respectively, followed by Adrian Sutil and Rubens Barrichello in 18th and 19th. Sebastian Vettel rounded out the cars after he suffered technical problems for the second session in a row, limiting him to nine laps in the day.

Although the drivers outside the top ten may think they have a lot of work to do ahead of them, the entire field is covered by a figurative blanket with the top 19 (minus Vettel) spread by just 1.8 seconds, which will make interesting races all over the field for Sunday.

Written: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:47:35