Lewis Hamilton said he was satisfied with his performance during Friday practice at the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton happy with day one at Silverstone
Lewis Hamilton said he was satisfied with his performance during Friday practice at the British Grand Prix after finishing in the top three in both sessions at Silverstone.
The McLaren Mercedes driver was nevertheless outpaced by team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in both of the 90-minute sessions, the Finn setting the fastest time in the afternoon having been second behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa on Friday morning.
"Although we only tested here last week, the track felt quite different today," said Hamilton, whose afternoon session began with a trip across the grass at Club.
"The car's balance felt good despite my having a grassy moment. In the afternoon, the car felt reasonably consistent, and I feel we've got a good benchmark for the weekend ahead."
Hamilton heads into the weekend after failing to score points in both Canada and France, in the process dropping down to fourth place in the Drivers' Championship.
The 23-year-old finds himself 10 points behind championship leader Massa at the season's halfway point but, with the knowledge that no one driver has really established a grip on proceedings so far this year, he remains bullish about his prospects.
"We're working as hard as we can," he said. "We're stronger this year than we were last year - we just haven't been as consistent.
"We come here with a strong feeling in the team and a strong package."
Expectations
Meanwhile, despite his strong showing on Friday, Kovalainen played down his own expectations for the weekend.
He was the only driver to duck under the one minute 20 second barrier during session two, although it was significantly slower than the overall fastest time (1:19.575) set by Massa in the morning session run on lighter fuel loads.
"We shouldn't get carried away with being fastest on Friday afternoon, but we've a good basis for Sunday," Kovalainen said.
Massa enjoyed a consistent advantage over World Champion team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, despite suffering a huge accident in the morning when he spun on oil left by Fernando Alonso's Renault at the end of the Hangar Straight.
The Ferrari pirouetted off the track at 180 mph before slamming backwards into a tyre barrier, destroying the rear end of the car.
Massa extracted himself unaided but there was an 18-minute red-flag delay while the crumpled car was prised from the barrier and marshals cleared Alonso's oil.
"I didn't see any [oil] flags and I had approached the corner in the usual way and then I totally lost control of the car under braking," Massa said. "I tried to slow down but the impact was still pretty violent.
"The car was completely destroyed, but fortunately the chassis was all right. The shunt was more than 25 Gs, but I didn't feel like it was a big shunt."
He was taken to the medical centre for checks but was discharged with a clean bill of health.
"I did all the tests possible, and I am 100 percent for the rest of the race," he confirmed.
