| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
SAO PAULO, Brazil : Local hero Felipe Massa topped the times for Ferrari just ahead of championship leading Briton Lewis Hamilton in Saturday's final free practice for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.
Massa clocked a best time of 1min 11.810sec to finish just one-tenth of a second ahead of Hamilton who leads his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by four points ahead of the three-way showdown for the title.
Massa's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who is the third man and outsider for the drivers' championship, was third fastest just eight-thousandths of a second behind Hamilton.
Alonso, however, who needs to finish at least five points ahead of Hamilton in the race to lift his third successive drivers' title, was down in eighth place in the second McLaren.
The session was run in warm, dry and sunny conditions after several days of wet and overcast weather and Hamilton, in particular, proved he had the measure of the demanding anti-clockwise circuit that he viewed for the first time in his career only on Friday.
Alonso appeared to struggle to find the extra time required to join the Ferraris at the front of the field when Hamilton, a master of late braking, delivered his final fast lap to split the Italian team's two cars.
"Pole position is going to be important as always," said Hamilton.
"But it's not the end of the world for me here if I qualify second, third or fourth. We have the pace to be up the front.
"I want to win the race on Sunday for sure -- that is always the way you have to approach a race. I am not coming here to finish fourth. But if you look at the statistics, I know where I need to finish. I am going to try to beat these guys, but if not I will just finish behind them."
Alonso knows he must finish in the top four to keep his hopes alive and Raikkonen must win or finish second.
Spaniard Alonso has been suggesting that the pressure is not on him as he bids to become the first man since Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina to win successive titles with different teams.
He said: "Everyone has pressure - Kimi, Lewis and me.. Maybe me and Kimi have nothing to lose, because we are second and third and are points behind.
"If we lose the championship it will not be a big surprise. Maybe Lewis has more pressure. But as soon as we close the visor we try to do our best. It will not be a problem for him.
"I thought it would be very difficult for me in my first season with McLaren and was thinking more in the longer term, so I am very lucky to be in the last race fighting for it.
"If I win it three times in a row, with two different teams, and all three times here in Brazil, it will be nice, a good thing to remember.
"But at the moment the chances are not extremely high so I am not thinking about it."
- AFP /ls
|
