McLaren set sights on Melbourne one-two

FORMER world champion Lewis Hamilton has set his sights on a McLaren one-two at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix after dominating practice in Melbourne yesterday.

The afternoon session was disrupted by intermittent spells of rain over the Albert Park circuit but Hamilton took advantage of a dry spell to clock the fastest lap of the day with team-mate Jenson Button just 0.275 seconds slower.

Both Hamilton and Button were unable to match the pace of the Ferraris and Red Bulls at the season-opening race in Bahrain two weeks ago as they qualified fourth and eighth respectively.

The pair made up one position each during a frustrating race that yielded few moments of overtaking but Hamilton is confident this weekend will be a different prospect entirely.

“I definitely think we’ve made some improvements to our pace compared with Bahrain ,” said the 25-year-old.

“Despite this afternoon’s wet weather, we went out early in the second session when it was still dry and got some good running under our belts in order to see how some of the changes we’d made between the sessions felt.

“I would love to get a win and secure a one-two. That is always our goal as a team but we don’t know what we can achieve this weekend. We know we can be quick so we will just try to do a good job.”

The return to Melbourne has been one of mixed emotions for Hamilton after claiming a maiden victory in his title-winning season in 2008 before he was at the centre of the infamous “lie-gate” scandal last year.

Last season was all the more frustrating for Hamilton as he struggled with a woeful McLaren but he believes his current car is the best he has had in Australia.

“I actually feel very relaxed,” he added. “I’ve got a car that probably feels better than I’ve ever had at this track, so that’s a major positive. I feel more confident that, going into qualifying, we’ll be able to attack the guys who were at the front two weeks ago.”

Hamilton’s team-mate Button was also happy with the performance of his car during practice.

“The car should feel better than it did in Bahrain,” he said.

Of some concern for the reigning world champion, though, is the potential to get caught up in traffic during qualifying today. With 24 cars on the circuit there were a number of close shaves during practice with Button himself nearly getting involved in an incident with BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa.

“I think some drivers are not being told the correct information about cars catching them up,” he added. “A lot of it is down to the teams to let us know who is around, because it’s very difficult to see behind in these cars.

“There’s a big difference in speed and we’re one of the quicker cars, so we’re catching a lot of traffic. But we’ll forget about that for now and concentrate on how to tweak this car and make sure it’s ready for qualifying.”