LONDON — Lewis Hamilton gave retired seven-time world
champion Michael Schumacher a taste of his pace on the first day of Formula
One’s final preseason test in Barcelona on Monday.
The 23-year-old McLaren driver, returning to the Circuit de
Cata-lunya where he suffered racist abuse from spectators at the start of the
month, topped the timesheets in 1:22.276 ahead of Ferrari’s world champion Kimi
Raikkonen in 1:22.319.
Schumacher, still quick at 39 years old and despite his
retirement at the end of 2006, was third fastest in 1:22.428. He was stepping
in as a one-day replacement for Brazilian Felipe Massa at Ferrari.
It was the first time the German had driven the F2008 car
after participating in several tests for the Italian team last season.
He did 83 laps to Raikkonen’s 82 in a session that started
wet and overcast.
Japan’s Kazuki Nakajima was fourth fastest for
Toyota-powered Williams, with McLaren’s Finnish driver Heikki Kova-lainen
placing fifth and Ger-many’s Nico Rosberg sixth for Williams.
Renault’s double world champion Fernando Alonso was seventh.
"We spent most of the day doing pit stop practice with the
mechanics and everything went okay, no problems," said the Spaniard.
"It was important to do this to get everybody ready for the
first race in Australia."
The Force India team gave its new VJM01 car its track debut,
with Germany’s Adrian Sutil setting the ninth-fastest time of the 19 drivers
present and Italian test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi 12th.
"We were running 60 percent of the aero package we will use
in Australia and it seemed to go well," said technical head Mike Gascoyne.
The season starts in Melbourne on March 16.
