Hamilton fastest on testing return

Lewis Hamilton got straight down to doing what he does best at Jerez on Wednesday as he set the pace on his first Formula 1 outing since losing the world title in Brazil.

The 22-year-old has spent recent weeks at a raft of promotional and awards events following his unparalleled rookie season, but emphasised on his return to track action what all the hype is about.

Hamilton led the way with a best time of 1m19.371s following 73 laps, after surviving an early spin that did no damage to his MP4-22 car.

His return marked the first time he had driven an F1 car without traction control and he began to acclimatise himself to that while also focusing on aero testing.

His best time was under a tenth of a second faster than Red Bull’s David Coulthard who was up in a strong second after making the most of the faster slick tyres that are being evaluated this week.

Felipe Massa was making his first appearance of the week for Ferrari and took third, with his world champion team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fractionally slower in fourth.

The second McLaren of Pedro de la Rosa ended the session fifth after an afternoon on slick rubber, a tenth of a second clear of Nelson Piquet Jr in the Renault R27.

Piquet spent most of the day focusing on evaluating the 2009-spec slicks, but was limited to 71 laps after a spin in the morning.

"It was frustrating to lose track time this morning, but the team did a great job to get the car ready again, and we got back on track before lunch and began the programme,” the young hot-shoe said.

“I think we did a good job today, and the team managed to collect some important data."

In the battle for the second Force India race seat, Christian Klien continued to impress and outpaced fellow candidate Giancarlo Fisichella by almost 0.3s to slot in seventh.

Robert Kubica was the lead BMW driver, with the German manufacturer squad slipping down the timesheet after Nick Heidfeld set the benchmark time for the week so far on Tuesday.

While Heidfeld continued to work with the slick rubber, Kubica focused on the 2008-spec electronic systems and aero and mechanical set-ups on the F1.07.

Williams welcomed back Nico Rosberg into the testing fold with the German setting the day’s 13th fastest time.

Meanwhile his countryman Nico Hulkenberg shaved half a second from his day one effort as the Grove squad continues to evaluate him for a potential test driver role.



Testing times from Jerez (December 5)

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m19.371s

2. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m19.421s

3. MASSA Ferrari 1m19.761s

4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m19.779s

5. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m19.887s

6. PIQUET JR Renault 1m19.982s

7. KLIEN Force India 1m20.187s

8. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m20.398s

9. FISICHELLA Force India 1m20.470s

10. KUBICA BMW 1m20.487s

11. GLOCK Toyota 1m20.523s

12. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m20.553s

13. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.671s

14. ZUBER Super Aguri 1m20.897s

15. WEBBER Red Bull 1m20.944s

16. HULKENBERG Williams 1m21.068s

17. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m21.076s

18. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m21.184s

19. KOBAYASHI Toyota 1m21.699s

20. HEIDFELD BMW 1m22.875s

Source: itv-f1