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HOCKENHEIM, Germany : A reinvigorated Lewis Hamilton dominated Friday's opening free practice session, ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.
The 23-year-old Englishman, who won the British Grand Prix in convincing fashion two weeks ago, clocked a best time of one minute and 15.025 seconds.
That meant the McLaren Mercedes driver was more than six-tenths of a second quicker than nearest rivals Brazilian Felipe Massa and defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Finland, both driving Ferraris.
Hamilton appears to be back in top gear after last year's disappointment when he lost out on the title at the final race of his rookie season.
"I was always positive, but I took the mistakes and the bad weekends a lot more personally last year," he said.
"This year, I'm a lot stronger as a person and as a driver I deal with it in a much better way.
"Despite the bad races I've had this year I feel stronger. I don't feel I have to bounce back or recover - the next race is something different.
"There are always areas as a driver you have to improve on and you have to work on where they are. It's not always clear."
In dry conditions, after a morning of rain and drizzle, Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen was fourth-fastest behind the Ferraris.
Australian Mark Webber, in a Red Bull, was fifth ahead of two-time world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault, German Nico Rosberg, of Williams, and Pole Robert Kubica in a BMW Sauber.
After an incident-packed morning in the wet conditions, the afternoon was far less exciting, but Hamilton survived a near-miss when he went close to Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais's slowing Toro Rosso car.
Hamilton set an early fastest time that stood for most of the session until it was overhauled by Massa and then set up a final flurry of fastest laps traded between them.
Hamilton set the best time of the day on his final run of the afternoon on soft tyres with just one minute of the session remaining.
It was a big boost for the Mercedes-Benz fans in the crowd at their "home" circuit, but there was precious little action to excite them during a mostly quiet and calm session in the afternoon.
And it was a bonus for Hamilton and his fans as he made the lessons of last year count again.
He is currently locked in a three-way tie on 48 points at the top of the drivers' standings, but hoping that a series of good results will give him an advantage.
He admitted that his home win at Silverstone had been a massive boost to his confidence.
"Apart from your first win in the sport, to win your home Grand Prix is something so special and so close to your heart it's difficult to explain it all," he said.
"I had all my family there. My family had never been to a race before so had never heard what a Formula One car sounds like."
- AFP /ls
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