THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NUERBURGRING, Germany — McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was fastest in Friday’s practice for the German Grand Prix, while Red Bull’s and Brawn GP’s drivers were again among the leaders.
Defending Formula One champion Hamilton set a fastest lap of one minute, 32.149 seconds around the Nuerburgring circuit to lead Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and overall leader Jenson Button of Brawn.
Vettel, coming off his second victory of the season at Silverstone, was strong in the cold, slippery conditions to set a best lap of 1:22.331, which was less than four-hundreths of a second faster than Button, who leads the championship standings with 64 points.
Button has won six of the first eight races of the season, but Vettel led a Red Bull 1-2 at the British GP with teammate Mark Webber to spark hopes of a championship fight to the close.
Vettel, whose first session was cut short by a car problem, has 39 points and Webber has 35.5.
Webber had the day’s fourth fastest lap — 1:32.480 — and Jarno Trulli of Toyota had a good showing to sit fifth.
"That was a pretty good day for us," Webber said.
Rubens Barrichello — Button’s closest challenger in the overall standings with 41 points — was just over half a second off of Hamilton’s pace in his Brawn GP. The Brazilian finished seventh, one place ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso.
Ferrari pair Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were both about a second off Hamilton’s pace.
"We’re not particularly bothered about our position in the classification," Massa said.
The top 13 cars finished within a second of Hamilton’s pace in cool, autumn-like conditions that saw a number of cars slide off at the chicane on the windy circuit.
Hamilton didn’t expect his performance to translate into a first victory this season, but the Briton was still buoyed by the chance of finishing in the top eight for the first time in five races.
"For us this will be a big step," Hamilton said. "If we’re able to challenge for the points every weekend, that would be a huge boost for us."
McLaren engineering director Paddy Lowe said that engineers worked overtime to get car upgrades installed in time for the circuit set in the Eifel hills, with one engineer even going 36 hours without a break.
"It’s a work in progress," Hamilton said. "Hopefully we’ll now do our job at the track and try to keep everything moving forward."
Conditions are expected to dry up for Saturday’s qualifying although showers are expected for Sunday’s 60-lap race. That could favor Vettel, who has notched two of his three career victories in wet conditions.