Hamilton shines in desert sun

Lewis Hamilton
12 April 2012

Lewis Hamilton is poised to deprive Sebastian Vettel of outright ownership of one of Formula One's longest-standing records.

Hamilton on Saturday clocked the fastest lap ever seen at the Yas Marina Circuit across any session - practice, qualifying and the race - ahead of tomorrow's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old, in search of the perfect weekend in a bid to put behind him all his troubles of late, posted a time of one minute 38.976 seconds. It was the first time any driver has dipped below 99 seconds for the 5.554-kilometre Middle Eastern track, with conditions ideal as blue skies and temperatures of 27 degrees centigrade dominated.

McLaren star Hamilton beat the previous fastest time over the two years the race has been on the calendar by 0.418secs set by double world champion Vettel in qualifying last year.

With Vettel claiming 13 poles this season, and needing top spot on the grid in Abu Dhabi and Brazil in a fortnight to overhaul Nigel Mansell's record of 14 in a season, the battle is on for the 24-year-old German in Saturday's qualifying session.

Vettel, who suffered a minor practice accident in the second 90-minute session, was forced to settle for second quickest in the final hour-long run, finishing 0.427secs adrift. Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber and McLaren's Jenson Button were in very close attendance, with the trio separated by just 0.026secs.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso is continuing to push hard to break into the top four, with the Spaniard 0.685 down, with a gap then of over half a second, such is the difference on this track between the leading runners.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg claimed sixth, but 1.159 down, followed closely by Felipe Massa in his Ferrari. The Force India duo of Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta are in a fight with Mercedes as the fourth-best team at this track as they again look on course for top-10 grid slots.

The duo were on Friday split by 0.080 in Sutil's favour, and again it was the German who held sway by 0.082, with Michael Schumacher completing the top 10 in his Mercedes, but over four-tenths of a second off Di Resta.

There was then a big gap to the rest of the field, led by Renault's Bruno Senna, 2.5secs off of Hamilton. Rubens Barrichello again suffered technical difficulties in his Williams, as was the case yesterday in first practice, with the Brazilian managing only five laps to leave him 19th.

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