McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest time in Friday’s practice for today’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Kovalainen, who is widely expected to depart McLaren after the race and is seeking to impress other teams, set a time of 1 minute, 41.307 seconds around the new Yas Marina circuit, edging teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.2 seconds.
“The whole day was pretty good,” Kovalainen said. “We’d already done some good work in Woking preparing for this circuit, so we had a good balance right from the start this morning. On the straight, KERS gives us an additional benefit. We can use it for maximum performance and it’s worth three-and-a-half to four-tenths.”
PHOTO: EPA
Hamilton said he believed McLaren could translate Friday’s pace into a challenge for pole position in yesterday’s qualifying as the team seeks to win the unofficial title of best team in the second half of the season.
‘BACK TO THE FRONT’
“Our car is probably driving better than it has all year — it’s just been getting better and better,” Hamilton said. “In a way, it’s been an excellent year. It’s a bit like a race when you start from the back of the field and fight back to the front.”
Brawn GP world champion Jenson Button was third fastest, ahead of Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, who was on course to challenge for fastest time before being baulked by another driver on his final flying lap.
Vettel is second place in the championship standings, two points ahead of Brawn GP driver Rubens Barrichello, who was eighth fastest on Friday.
Toyota driver Kamui Kobayashi, preparing for only his second career race after a debut in the previous round in Brazil, was fifth best, in front of Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi and Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
Second through seventh were separated by just 0.18 of a second, indicating a close race today on a circuit that creates headaches for engineers, who must balance the need for straight-line speed on the two long straights with downforce in the twisty and technical sections.
GETTING DARK
Friday’s second practice session gave drivers their first opportunity to experience the transition from a twilight start to a finish in the darkness of early evening — mirroring the times of today’s race.
It appeared to create no problems for the drivers, with generous runoff areas meaning no collisions with tire walls and no damage to cars.
The only casualty was BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica, who blew an engine early in the second session. The strong performances by Kovalainen and Hamilton showed that McLaren was well poised to hang onto third place in the constructors’ championship ahead of rival Ferrari.
Ferrari, whose drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella could only manage 10th and 17th, respectively, in Friday’s practice, are one point behind McLaren.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS