Kovalainen ups pressure on Hamilton

Heikki Kovalainen ensured Lewis Hamilton did not have it all his own way in practice ahead of Sunday’s German Grand Prix.

Hamilton dominated Friday’s two 90-minute sessions, destroying his rivals around Hockenheim in posting a hot lap of minute 15.025 seconds to leave them trailing by more than 0.6secs.

McLaren team-mate Kovalainen set the benchmark in the closing hour-long session ahead of qualifying later today, although he was still half a second down on Hamilton’s best.

The Finn, 24 points behind world championship leaders Hamilton and Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, set a time of 1:15.621secs for the 4.574km track.

That was Kovalainen’s best overall throughout the three sessions, edging Massa into second place by 0.072secs, with Hamilton third, around 0.2secs adrift.

Seemingly running on lower fuel settings, Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet were fourth and seventh, sandwiching Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel and Jarno Trulli for Toyota, with the quartet all setting their quickest times.

Mark Webber was 0.575secs down for Red Bull in eighth, with Raikkonen again suggesting he has yet to find his true form around this track as the reigning world champion could only manage ninth.

Behind the Williams of Nico Rosberg in 10th came Britons Jenson Button and David Coulthard for Honda and Red Bull respectively, in 11th and 12th, with both more than 0.8secs down.

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who spun into a tyre wall on Friday, had further problems with his car as his session ended 30 minutes in.

The Pole, who is two points behind the three championship leaders, managed only 15 laps before parking up in the garage, leaving him to prop up the timesheets with a lap 1.8secs slower than Kovalainen.