Good start for McLaren despite Hamilton crash

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team finished today’s second practice session in 3rd and 4th places. Heikki set a time of 1:32.752 whilst Lewis did 1:32.847. There was a bit of drama towards the end of second practice when Lewis touched a kerb and lost control of the car and went into the barrier.

Lewis was OK but had to attend a precautionary check at the Medical Centre. In the first session Lewis’ time of 1:32.705 put him 4th whilst Heikki did 1:32.868 and finished in 5th. Lewis completed 21 and 26 laps whilst Heikki did 20 and 30.

Lewis Hamilton: "It was a shame that I ended what had been a productive day going off the circuit and hitting the barriers at Turn Seven. I was just pushing and sometimes these things happen. I am absolutely fine, and hopefully the damage to the car is not too bad. We would have had to change our engine and gearbox anyway so hopefully I am not going to be too unpopular with the boys in the garage. In the first session we stayed on the same set of tyres throughout. I flatspotted one of them early on but, as it was only Practice One, we chose to save a set of tyres, however we monitored the vibrations closely to make sure that they didn’t cause any damage to the car. The circuit was obviously very dirty and continued to evolve throughout both sessions."

Heikki Kovalainen: "As this track is very hard on brakes this was the focus in the first session - just making sure we got as much data as possible and that everything was working well. The track was very dirty and there was hardly any grip to begin with so we decided there was no point in using more than one set of prime tyres. In the second session we could turn our attention to general set-up work and tyre evaluation. We ran both the option and the prime and there is not that much difference. I am comfortable in the car and looking forward to the rest of the weekend."

Ron Dennis: "Apart from Lewis’s off towards the end of the second session, a good start to our Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. The track continued to improve throughout both sessions and we gathered a lot of data. As Bahrain is one of the most demanding circuits on brakes we monitored and evaluated our brake performance throughout. We experienced no problems and look forward to the rest of the weekend."

Norbert Haug: "We completed our preparation programme for Saturday and Sunday and the times in race trim are not looking bad. Lewis’s crash luckily was not too hard - his team now have a lot of work ahead before Saturday but they will manage."