Hamilton fastest despite engine issues

Saturday, 28 March 2015 00:37 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

SEPANG, Malaysia (Reuters): Lewis Hamilton recovered from a frustrating morning session to lay down a marker to his Formula One rivals with the fastest time of the day in second free practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday. Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg had dominated the first session, in which Hamilton was unable to set a timed lap after suffering a major engine problem and stopping on the track.

After mechanics worked to fix what his team deemed a “hardware issue”, Hamilton slipped on the quicker medium tyres and clocked an impressive one minute, 39.790 seconds with 20 minutes remaining to top the timesheets. Ferrari will have been buoyed by their day’s work with a resurgent Kimi Raikkonen finishing second in each session, lapping 0.373 seconds behind Rosberg in the morning and by the same margin adrift of Hamilton in the afternoon. Sebastian Vettel also looked quick in the other Ferrari, backing up his impressive debut at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with the third fastest time of the morning. The German also spun off while on target for a very quick time later in the day. Rosberg followed his earlier impressive run with a third-fastest time but a mistake on his flying lap on the medium tyres prevented him from challenging Hamilton’s best work around the sweeping 5.543 km Sepang International Circuit. Fernando Alonso enjoyed a smooth return to action after missing the season-opener due to concussion caused by a crash in winter testing, the Spaniard racking up the laps in his McLaren to finish 14th in the morning session. Alonso did have a minor scare when he locked up and skidded into the pit lane entrance late in the second session but he and team mate Jenson Button remained firmly among the back markers with their Honda-powered cars showing just a slight overall improvement since Melbourne.