McLaren's Lewis Hamilton threatens to break Red Bull hagemony: Formula One News
Seems like there is a twist in the tale in the 2011 Formula One season as the Red Bull dominance is being threatened by the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton sprung a surprise in the Spanish Grand Prix today when he clocked the fastest time in the practice session ahead of the Red Bull of
Mark Webber.
Hamilton split the two Red Bulls today with Webber setting the early pace in Spain, clocking in 0.039 seconds faster than Hamilton’s McLaren.
After the disappointing first three races of the season, the first practice session in Spain was nonetheless encouraging for the Brit’s McLaren, which
has brought a number of new parts to the City of Barcelona as a part of their ever changing car design.
Hamilton’s compatriot and McLaren teammate Jenson Button came in fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.
All the teams have brought a number of new parts to this race as they seek to break the dominance of the early pace setters, Red Bull, but the early
signs show that McLaren have made the most advances.
"We made some small steps forward today, We improved a couple of small areas. The front wing seems to be a little bit better. Globally it seems to be not too bad," said Hamilton after the first
practice session in Barcelona.
The McLaren driver added, "I don't know. From the times it looks great. Usually when we get to qualifying they end up switching something on and they're half a second quicker. Undoubtedly they
are still the quickest car."
The standings after the first Practice session in Barcelona are as follows:
Mark Webber
Red Bull-Renault
1:25.142
Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull-Renault
1:26.149
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes GP
1:26.379
Fernando Alonso
Ferrari
1:26.480
Sergio Perez
Sauber
1:26.738
Lewis Hamilton
McLaren-Mercedes
1:26.988
Michael Schumacher
Mercedes GP
1:27.016
Nick Heidfeld
Renault
1:27.132
Jenson Button
McLaren-Mercedes
1:27.138
Rubens Barrichello
Williams-Cosworth
1:27.212
Vitaly Petrov
Renault
1:27.241
Daniel Ricciardo
Toro Rosso-Ferrari
1:27.471
Pastor Maldonado
Williams-Cosworth
1:28.005
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