On average, over 100 people are either killed or seriously injured in road accidents every day in Britain, alone. If you drive a vehicle regularly in your adult life there is a good chance you are going to be involved in an accident at some point.

Poor visibility and wet conditions are notorious for causing many motor accidents. Drivers may not consider their speed and take into consideration the extra gap they need to leave from the car in front when driving on wet roads.  But too often the case is slow reactions or wet roads cause a car to skid uncontrollably, ending up in a motor accident as one car crashes into the back of another.  The result can be a whiplash injury to the driver and any passengers in either car.

‘Whiplash’ is a common name given to describe a neck pain that follows injury to the neck ligaments, tendons or muscles. Whiplash is caused by a sudden forceful motion applied to the neck which outreaches a normal movement.  This common-name is used over more medical mouthfuls such as ‘acceleration flexion-extension neck injury’ and ‘soft tissue cervical hyperextension injury’.

Whiplash claims from motor accident injuries are commonplace and any aching or stiffness following an accident, however slight, is best checked out by visiting your doctor or local hospital.

If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in a motoring accident, it is important to gather as much information as possible before you leave the scene of the accident. If for any reason you are unable to gather all the information you need at the time, be sure to get contact details of the other people in the accident and at least one, possibly two, independent witnesses.

Information and evidence will help any insurance claims. For this reason I always carry a pen and paper as well as my business card in the glove compartment of my car.

If you were not to blame for the accident in question and receive an injury you need to contact a solicitor who will be able to discuss with you in detail the procedure of claiming against your injury and other claims such as loss of income.  There are numerous solicitors that work solely on motor accident claims but my advice is to choose wisely.

Some websites include helpful tools such as a compensation calculator to help you consider claiming.

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, topped the time-sheets in today’s free practice session followed by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel in second and Jenson Button in the Brawn GP car in third.

The teams and drivers were faced with showers before the start of the 90 minute session but it stayed dry as practice got underway.

Under dark skies in the morning free practice session, it was the Australian Mark Webber in the Red Bull Racing car that led the pack at the Nurburgring.  Jenson Button was Webber’s closest rival followed by the Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who this week confirmed he is to become a papa.

Sebastian Vettel picked-up the pace with only a third of the session left to run, claiming second behind his team-mate, when his RB5 stopped at turn two.  After returning the car to the pits, the team got the fault repaired and sent the German driver back on track before the end of the session, but he could only manage eighth place.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil, was another turn two casualty while running in third position, unfortunately the car appeared to have suffered an hydraulics problem and could not be finished before the end of the morning session, leaving Sutil at the back in 20th place.

Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari, was another driver with problems and spent a lengthy stay in the pits, joining the session late and finishing in 12th spot.

After a brief spell of rain at the beginning of the second session of practice, Hamilton was on a charge and shot to the top of the leaders board after a last minute tyre change to the softer option.  The McLaren Mercedes is featuring a new revised package for this weekends race including a new front wing and diffuser.

Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India, was caught out by the early shower in the afternoon session after only completing three laps before spinning the VJM02 at turn 10 and smashing into the barriers.

The times started to pick-up on the drying track as the rubber went down and Button looked back on form as he took the top spot for a short time.

Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren, is without the latest parts to his car this weekend, and finished in seventeenth in the second session.  Towards the end of the practice, the Finn was on a fast lap until he locked his brakes-up going into the chicane, sending him across the grass.

Here are the combined times for today’s practice sessions;

1. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1m 32.149s
2. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1m 32.331s
3. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 1m 32.369s
4. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1m 32.480s
5. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota 1m 32.511s
6. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1m 32.585s
7. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes 1m 32.664s
8. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault 1m 32.774s
9. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 1m 32.872s
10. Nelson Piquet Jr Brazil Renault-Renault 1m 32.992s
11. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber 1m 33.012s
12. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 33.052s
13. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 1m 33.128s
14. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber 1m 33.161s
15. Timo Glock Germany Toyota-Toyota 1m 33.172s
16. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 33.182s
17. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1m 33.724s
18. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes 1m 33.839s*
19. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 33.903s
20. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 34.025s

all times unofficial

Felipe Massa

On Sunday, the charity event the ‘International Challenge Of The Go-Kart Champs, took place in Florianopolis, Brazil.

It was organised by Ferrari’s Formula One driver Felipe Massa, who gathered a host of celebrities from the world of sport to partake in the charity race.

Massa lined-up alongside Michael Shumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Cristiano de Matta, Lucas Di Grassi, Antonio Pizzonia, Luciano Burti, Tarso Marques and Ricardo Zonto from Formula One, Alexandre Barras from Moto GP and drivers from NASCAR, Stock Car and Indy racing.

Rubens Barrichello won the event after coming first in race one by beating Lucas di Grassi and finishing fifth in race two.  Schumacher finished fourth in the first race but retired from the second race which was won by Massa.

Di Grassi finished in second place overall, just one point behind Barrichello who joked after the race, “Can we quickly send this tape to Honda” as both he and Di Grassi are both hoping for the Honda seat for the 2009 season.

Massa said,

“I am giving 50,000 Real from my own pocket, plus a signed suit to be auctioned.  It’s the least we can do for theses people.”

Parts of Brazil have recently suffered major flooding and landslides which have so far killed at least 100 people in the South of the country.

Felipe Massa

After an action packed Belgian Grand Prix race the drama continued well after the chequered flag as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was demoted of his win which was then handed to second place ma,n Ferrari driver Felipe Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari got a fantastic start from fourth place on the grid and by the end of the second lap was in the lead while Hamilton span his McLaren at La Source.

Raikkonen had control of the lead but was unable to shake off Hamilton but with only three laps of the forty-four lap race to go the rain started to fall again.

Raikkonen had to back off the pace as the grip lessened on circuit allowing Hamilton to close the gap and compete for the lead.

The Finn kept his racing line as Hamilton tried to pass him at the ‘Bus-Stop’, but Hamilton was forced to go off track as the gap was not enough to let him through, however, he squeezed past Raikkonen at ‘La Source’ to take the lead.

Hamilton’s challenge at the ‘Bus-Stop’ would later prove to cost him his win after it was considered that Hamilton had gained an advantage going into the first turn.

As the rain got heavier and the track more slippery, Hamilton and Raikkonen continued to push with only one-and-a-half laps to go.

The Williams car of Nico Rosberg had span and he was rejoining the track as the Hamilton and Raikkonen battle approached, forcing both drivers to take avoiding action to miss Rosberg.

Hamilton took to the grass while Raikkonen span but managed to control the Ferrari and rejoined right behind Hamilton, he then again span but this time hit the retaining wall and he was out of the race while Hamilton managed to get his car home and take the chequered flag.

Nick Heidfeld was amazing in the BMW Sauber when in the penultimate lap he pitted to change to intermediate tyres.

He sliced his way through the pack to take third place as the drivers who had opted to remain on their tyres for the rest of the race struggled for grip.  He now moves up to second position after Hamilton’s penalty.

Fernando Alonso finished in fourth place, for the Renault team, as he battled with the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel at the finishing line.

Robert Kubica in the second BMW Sauber finished in sixth place followed by Sebastien Bourdais in the Toro Rosso in seventh.

Timo Glock finished in eighth place in the Toyota but he was also handed a 25-second penalty for overtaking under a waved yellow flag.

Glock’s team-mate, Jarno Trulli had a fantastic start from eleventh place on the grid up to fifth but was hit from behind by Bourdais and the Toyota suffered handling problems for the rest of the race.

Mark Webber was moved up to eighth place after Glock’s penalty for the Red Bull Racing team ahead of the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.

Earlier in the race, Kovalainen had tried a pass on Webber, forcing the Red Bull driver to spin, Kovalainen was penalised with a drive-through penalty and then on the final lap crashed out at turn eight.

The second Red Bull driver, David Coulthard, finished in eleventh ahead of the leading Williams driver Nico Rosberg.

The Force India driver, Adrian Sutil took thirteenth place followed by the second Williams driver, Kazuki Nakajima.

Jenson Button in the Honda was in fifteenth place ahead of Jarno Trulli and second Force India driver, Giancarlo Fisichella.

Rubens Barrichello retired from the race after his Honda suffered a gearbox failure while young Nelson PIquet span off in the early part of the race.

Hamilton losing this race now brings his championship lead down to only two points between him and Massa.

Here are the results;

Pos  Driver        Team
 1.  Massa         Ferrari
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes
 4.  Alonso        Renault
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber
 7.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault
 9.  Glock         Toyota
10.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota
13.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari
14.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota
15.  Button        Honda
16.  Trulli        Toyota
17.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari
18.  Raikkonen     Ferrari

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:47.930

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Barrichello   Honda                 (B)    21
Piquet        Renault               (B)    14

Felipe Massa

The first ever Grand Prix has taken place on the new street circuit of Valencia, with blue skies and no sight of the safety car, but what a boring race!

This track contained about as much excitement as watching paint dry, with practically no overtaking moves and no racing whatsoever.

Felipe Massa in the Ferrari took the victory yesterday at the Spanish circuit after taking the lead from the start followed by Britain’s Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.

On the first lap, Williams driver, Kazuki Nakajima, drove into the back of Fernando Alonso’s Renault. Both drivers needed to pit, Nakajima for a new front wing and a whole new back wing for Alonso with a much longer stop for the repairs.

By lap two, Massa had made a gap between himself and Hamilton, of 1.5 seconds with Robert Kubica in third, Kovalainen in fourth and Sebastian Vettel in fifth.

David Coulthard in the Red Bull, also managed to get caught up in the Nakajima and Alonso incident, seeing him spinning and going back down the grid.

The problems weren’t over for Alonso, as his mechanics had obviously found other problems with the car, and Alonso was out of his seat and it’s race over.  Apparently, there had also been gearbox issues with the car, but a great disappointment for all those Spanish fans.

On lap eight, Coulthard tried to pass Adrian Sutil in the Force India but contact was made and he span yet again, although good luck was coming his way when on lap twelve Rubens Barrichello in the Honda ran wide letting Coulthard through to take seventeenth place!

Massa had a close encounter on his second pit stop when his team released him from pit box as Sutil was already coming down the pit lane.  Massa was put under investigation and it was announced that the penalty would be imposed after the race.

Fortunately, Massa was allowed to keep his first place after the stewards had deemed his release dangerous.  The Ferrari team have been reprimanded and fined a total of 10,000€ for the “unsafe release from pit-stop, although no advantage was obtained.”

Sutil later went onto put his Force India in the tyre wall while Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, hit one of his refuelling men after trying to leave the pit before the fuel nozzle had been removed.

The injured man, was in charge of the fuel rig and was hit and run over by the right rear tyre.  At the moment he seems to have just injured his foot but is understood to be having a check-up at the hospital after complaining of back pains.

Two laps later, Raikkonen’s engine expired in a ball of smoke, ending a disastrous weekend for the Finn and again no points.

Here are the results:

1. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 35 minutes 32.339 seconds
2. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes at 5.611secs
3. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber at 37.353
4. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren- Mercedes at 39.703
5. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 50.684
6. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso- Ferrari at 52.625
7. Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota at 1:07.990
8. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota at 1:11.457
9. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber at 1:22.177
10. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:29.794
11. Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 1:32.717
12. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault one lap behind
13. Jenson Button (GB) Honda one lap
14. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari one lap
15. Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota one lap
16. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda one lap
17. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault one lap
R Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 45 laps completed
R Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 41 laps completed
R Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault one lap completed

Key: R = retired

All ten of the Formula One teams are testing at Hockenheim in Germany this week for a three day session.

The McLaren team have been testing their new ‘Shark Fin’ style engine cover on Tuesday with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel and will then decide whether to run with it at the German Grand Prix.

Similar bodywork is already is use with the Red Bull team, Toro Rosso and Renault, with Force India being the most recent until now, having tested theirs for the first time at the Silverstone test and at the British Grand Prix.

In the morning session of testing, which was blighted by rain showers, Hamilton set the fastest time, half-a-second quicker than the Williams driver Nico Rosberg.

Force India driver, Adrian Sutil was third fastest ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber and Nelson Piquet for Renault.

There was only one red flag incident, when Alex Wurz in the Honda, span off on wet tyres at Mercedes Tribune corner, after testing a new front wing.

Here are the results following the afternoon session;

Pos  Driver       Team                     Time      Laps
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.483  75
 2.  Raikkonen    Ferrari             (B)  1:15.803  63
 3.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.099  87
 4.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:16.516  97
 5.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.533  113
 6.  Kobayashi    Toyota              (B)  1:16.570  65
 7.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.593  59
 8.  Piquet       Renault             (B)  1:16.856  111
 9.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.361  67
10.  Wurz         Honda               (B)  1:17.825  89

Lewis Hamilton came in third for the Mercedes McLaren team while his teammate Heikki Kovalainen suffered a front left wheel failure which saw him going at full speed through the gravel trap and buried in the tyre wall. The medical team were quickly on track attending to Kovalainen who was taken from the circuit in the air ambulance.

He will be staying the night in hospital after it emerged that he was knocked unconscious in the high speed crash. Ron Dennis has said that he had a CT scan which has revealed there is no head injury other than concussion and added “The team is optimistic that he will make a full recovery over the next few days”.

Robert Kubica continued his impressive form with a fourth place for BMW Sauber with Mark Webber taking a fortunate fifth. The position should have belonged to Nick Heidfeld who needed to stop for fuel while the safety car and the medical team were on track meaning that the pit lane was closed. Heidfeld with no choice, refuelled and incurred a ten-second stop and go penalty putting him back down the field.

Jenson Button finished in sixth place getting some much needed points for the Honda team followed by Kazuki Nakajima who took seventh for the Williams Toyota team, his first points since joining them.

Jarno Trulli finished in eighth place for Toyota after a three stop race followed by Heidfeld.

Force India driver, Giancarlo Fisichella continued with a steady race pace to finish in tenth place. He fought hard to hold Heidfeld back but finally lost the position to finish ahead of Timo Glock.

The second Red Bull driver, David Coulthard, had an eventful race from the start. He was hit on lap one when Adrian Sutil lost control of his car and then later was hit from behind by Timo Glock. He had to make an extra stop due to a rear tyre problem but amazingly still managed to finish in twelfth place.

Many of the drivers retired during the race. Nico Rosberg in the Williams had a great start and was running in seventh place but an engine failure ended his race.

Fernando Alonso was second on the grid but was left behind as Massa shot passed him at the start. He was in for his first pit stop on lap fifteen and rejoined the track behind Rubens Barrichello who was lapping two seconds slower than Alonso had managed before. At the end of the first set of pit stops, Alonso had lost his position to Hamilton, Kubica and Heidfeld but half way through the race, he to retired with engine failure, a disappointing day for the Renault team and the Spanish fans.

Nelson Piquet took a trip through the gravel early on in the race and later made a bad move on the Toro Rosso driver, Sebastien Bourdais taking them both out of the race. The second Toro Rosso was out on lap one after getting caught in the accident between Sutil and Coulthard.

Plenty of incidents but a pretty boring race overall. Thankfully Kovalainen wasn’t seriously injured after the high speed accident which practically crushed the car and will undergo a medical check before he attends the next Grand Prix in Turkey.

Here are the results;

1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1 min 21.813 secs
2. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:21.904
3. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:22.058
4. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22.065
5. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren – Mercedes 1:22.096
6. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren – Mercedes 1:22.231
7. Mark Webber (Aus) RedBull – Renault 1:22.429
8. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:22.529
9. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:22.542
10. Nelsinho Piquet (Brz) Renault 1:22.699
11. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:21.049
12. Kazuki Nakajima (Jap) Williams – Toyota 1:21.117
13. Jenson Button (GB) Honda 1:21.211
14. Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:21.230
15. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams – Toyota 1:21.349
16. Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1:21.724
17. David Coulthard (GB) RedBull – Renault 1:21.810
18. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1:22.108
19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India – Ferrari 1:22.516
20. Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India – Ferrari 1:23.224
21. Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri – Honda 1:23.318
22. Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri – Honda 1:23.496

Felipe Massa took the chequered flag today at the Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari, after dominating the race from the first lap. It’s the first points he’s scored so far this season but it’s his sixth career win in Formula One.
World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen finished on the tail of his Ferrari teammate to take his 50th podium position so far in his career. His second place has also put him at the top of the points chart with 19, 3 points ahead of Nick Heidfeld.

British driver, Lewis Hamilton, had a disastor of a race after messing-up at the start and later, damaging his car badly after running into the back of his old mate Fernando Alonso. He had lost seven places at the start of the race and finally finished in 13th place. Amazingly, Alonso did not appear to have too much rear end damage for a while but, it was soon apparent that he was in trouble with the balance of the car.

Robert Kubica, the pole position man, did not make such a great getaway off the line, but had a very impressive race finally finishing in third place to take his well deserved place on the podium. It is the first time that a BMW Sauber driver has started a grand prix in pole position. His teammate Nick Heidfeld finished in a creditable fourth place and moved the team up the the top spot of the Constructor’s Championship.

Jenson Button and David Coulthard were battling it out until Button tried to dive up the inside of Coulthard spinning both cars of the track. Fortunately both drivers were able to rejoin immediately, Button minus his nose cone. He pitted again and then retired from the race on lap 21. There may be handbags at dawn down in the pits!

Another exciting scrap happened between the Toyota driver, Timo Glock and Fernando Alonso. Alonso was trying to pass Glock who was in ninth place on lap 38 but Timo was having none-of-it and Fernando was seen locking his rear brakes and losing more time as he shook his fist at Glock. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when those to get together!

Here are the results for the Bahrain Grand Prix 2008:

1 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 31 minutes 6.970 seconds
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari +3.339 secs
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +4.998
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +8.409
5 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +26.789
6 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota +41.314
7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +45.473
8 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +55.889
9 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota +1:09.500
10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +1:17.181
11 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda +1:17.862
12 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari one lap behind
13 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes one lap
14 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota one lap
15 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari one lap
16 Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
17 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda one lap
18 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault one lap
19 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari two laps
R Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 40 laps completed
R Jenson Button (GB) Honda 19 laps
R Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps

Fastest lap: Kovalainen, 1:33.193, lap 49.

Key: R = retired

Button has an incredible natural ability and its a joy to watch him race when he is at one with his car, nobody in motor racing would possibly under rate his immense talent. But failure to impress this season would surely remove him from the chance of a world championship title for good.

The omens are good for Button, Honda did some excellent business in bringing former Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn in, as team principal, last November. They also have new personnel in aerodynamics, design and engineering, in place.

Brawn who masterminded six consecutive World Championships for Ferrari, has said it is Honda’s goal to have a car capable of winning races this year, with a world championship capable version available by 2009. He has also said “If we give Jenson a car then he’ll be able to win races” and that Jenson is “more than capable” of winning races.

If there is a flaw in the jewel it is Button’s attitude and commitment to his work, his natural talent is in no doubt. As former world champion Nigel Mansell said “He’s got a great reputation for partying.”

It may have been a shot across the bows from Brawn when he spoke of Schumacher’s “work ethic” saying “That was very strong in Michael, and bought it’s own rewards.”

“I will be encouraging Jenson in that respect. You can miss out on a lot if you leave early after practice and don’t spend time with your engineers.”

Button is back, fitter, leaner and keener than at any time in his career, he has spent the winter in Lanzorote, not partying but training. He says he is “very motivated” after working his “ass off” all winter and is keen to get back to racing.

“I feel that I’m the fittest driver on the grid and the most focused driver out there. I’m definitely hungry and I want a competitive car.”

I have a great feeling about Honda’s chances for the coming season. They have a good pedigree in modern motor racing history and I was surprised when they withdrew from Formula 1 after dominating six consecutive seasons with Williams and McLaren. I believe that Brawn and Button will make a formidable partnership with Honda and I expect some podium places this year.

Lewis Hamilton topped the time-sheets with a time of 1:22.276 in the McLaren but all eyes were on the Ferrari team who had Michael Schumacher testing the car for them alongside Kimi Raikkonen.  Raikkonen was the faster of the two and came in second with Schumacher just over a tenth of a second behind him.

The Williams driver, Kazuki Nakajima was in fourth place just ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren and Nico Rosberg in the second Williams Toyota.

Fernando Alonso was a disappointing seventh place with Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber in eighth but an impressive ninth place for the new Force India car and driver Adrian Sutil.

Mark Webber in the Red bull Renault finished off the top ten drivers but poor old David Coulthard was the slowest man on the track and only managed only 25 complete laps.