With potential vacancies next year at Ferrari and Red Bull, and possibly
Mercedes too, there is always the chance that one of McLaren’s rivals may
make a play for Hamilton or that he could try to engineer a move if he felt
they were more likely to give him a winning car.
Hamilton’s team-mate, Jenson
Button, went fastest yesterday in practice for Sunday’s Monaco Grand
Prix but intermittent rain made it difficult to judge relative pace.
Meanwhile, Lotus have said they will not allow Kimi Raikkonen to take part in
Rally Finland later this summer following their experience with Robert
Kubica last year.
The Pole’s career is on hold following a major crash in a pre-season rally and
Raikkonen’s contract forbids him from taking part in similar
extra-curricular activities.
The 2007 world champion had sought clearance to make a one-off return to the
WRC but was told it would not be possible.
Second Practice: 1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 1min
15.746secs, 2 Romain Grosjean (Swi) Lotus-Renault 1:16.138, 3 Felipe Massa
(Bra) Ferrari 1:16.602, 4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:16.661, 5 Pastor
Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Renault 1:16.820, 6 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP
1:17.021, 7 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:17.148, 8 Kamui Kobayashi
(Jpn) Sauber 1:17.153, 9 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:17.293, 10
Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 1:17.303, 11 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr)
McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.375, 12 Paul Di Resta (Gbr) Force India-Mercedes
1:17.395, 13 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams-Renault 1:17.655, 14 Nico Hulkenberg
(Ger) Force India-Mercedes 1:17.800, 15 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber 1:18.251,
16 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham-Renault 1:18.440, 17 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra)
Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:18.522, 18 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso-Ferrari
1:18.808, 19 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus-Renault 1:19.267, 20 Timo Glock
(Ger) Marussia-Cosworth 1:19.309, 21 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin)
Caterham-Renault 1:20.029, 22 Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia-Cosworth 1:20.240,
23 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-Cosworth 1:20.631, 24 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind)
HRT-Cosworth 1:20.886