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NO PROBLEM: McLaren's Lewis Hamilton roaring through yesterday's practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang. He said the car showed consistent pace throught the session and good overall speed. -- PHOTO: AP
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SEPANG - A SECRET desire to be a rock star may have helped McLaren's Lewis Hamilton get the better of Ferrari again.
The Italian team had dominated both official practice sessions yesterday for the Malaysian Grand Prix until Hamilton - winner of the season-opening Australian GP last Sunday - showed up.
He took advantage of cooling track temperatures under cloudy skies to set the day's best lap of 1 minute 35.055 seconds in a late run.
He was 0.151sec ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa in session two, with world champion Kimi Raikkonen third quickest, another two-tenths of a second behind.
In the morning, Raikkonen's Ferrari ran out of fuel, spluttered on vapours and then stopped on the track.
He had to abandon the car and watch as it was hoisted off by a crane.
Ferrari, aiming to rebound from a dismal start to the season at last week's Australian Grand Prix where they collected just one point - their worst season-opener since 1992 - blamed confusion in the pit lane.
No such trouble for Hamilton.
'I'm pretty happy with today's results as the car showed consistent pace throughout the session and good overall speed,' he said.
Music helps keep him calm too. In his hotel room, he often pulls his Les Paul Gibson, connects earphones and lets rip with some classic rock.
Sounds familiar? Jonny Wilkinson, the World Cup-winning England rugby flyhalf, is another guitar-playing superstar who uses his 'axe' for exactly the same purpose.
'I play a bit of everything really, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, Jimmy Hendrix,' said Hamilton. 'My favourite riff is from Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry, a solo that I quite like.
'I have been listening to Marley since I was born.
'I find it a good way to relax. Killing time is not easy when you are travelling.
'You soon run out of films to watch, you soon get bored of reading, there are only a certain number of things you can read on the Internet.
'I can spend hours playing my guitar. I just play for myself, not to anyone.'
The winner of five Grands Prix was also adamant that he has a good voice. People have told him so at karaoke bars, such as Shanghai Blue in China, where he has been known to perform.
It could hardly be better for Hamilton as he sets out in pursuit of a second successive victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
On a morning that saw Briton David Coulthard's day wrecked when he crashed heavily and damaged his Red Bull while teammate Australian Mark Webber suffered an engine failure, the afternoon was relatively straightforward for Hamilton.
Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais stopped on the track in the opening minutes and was unable to produce a lap time, joining Coulthard among the afternoon's non-runners.
The surprises of yesterday's second session were Honda's Jenson Button, Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel and Toyota's Jarno Trulli, who filled fourth, fifth and sixth on the timesheets respectively.
The trio were ahead of the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen in seventh and BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica in eighth.
Renault pair Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr were sixth and seventh quickest in the first practice session, but sank down the timesheets in the afternoon.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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