Hamilton gives title rivals something to think about

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in today's second free practice session in the McLaren to add an interesting twist to the championship finale.

Last season's pole sitter at this Yas Marina Circuit, Hamilton set a time of 1m 40.888 to finish 3/10ths ahead of Sebastian Vettel, with Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber following on. Webber was just 1/000th of a second slower than the Ferrari.

Hamilton looked quick all day in the McLaren, which has an updated F Duct rear wing this weekend. However he also courted controversy and was called to the stewards for cutting across the front of Bruno Senna and going across the while pit lane entry line. They let him off with a reprimand.

Hamilton believes that after several races where he didn't have the car to challenge the Red Bulls and Ferraris, he can get in amongst them, "I don't think I'm fighting for fourth this weekend," he said with a smile.

The Red Bulls looked like they were sliding on the harder of the Bridgestone tyres. When Vettel went onto the soft tyre later in the session the car looked like it had more bite. But in today's running Hamilton's McLaren seemed to have the edge in the final sector of the lap, which features a lot of low speed, off camber corners.

Today's performance is not necessarily conclusive proof that McLaren will be spoiling the party for Red Bull and Ferrari in qualifying tomorrow; McLaren have been quick on Fridays before then come up short on Saturday in qualifying.

But it would be very interesting of he bumped one of Vettel Webber or Alonso out of the top three on the grid. That would make for a very interesting race on Sunday.

Fernando Alonso, who starts the weekend with an eight point advantage over Mark Webber, complained of oversteer in the low speed corners.

His team mate Felipe Massa stopped out on the track the end of the second session when he ran out of fuel. He radioed this message to the team, which was broadcast to the other teams. It is interesting that he should have been running with low enough fuel levels to run out at that stage of practice.

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX, Friday practice

1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.888s

2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m41.145s + 0.257s

3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m41.314s + 0.426s

4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m41.315s + 0.427s

5. Robert Kubica Renault 1m41.576s + 0.688s

6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m41.583s + 0.695s

7. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m42.096s + 1.208s

8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m42.132s + 1.244s

9. Tonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1m42.203s + 1.315s

10. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m42.222s + 1.334s

11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m42.246s + 1.358s