Hamilton Upbeat After Setting Practice Pace

Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren are in good shape for this weekend's Malaysian grand prix after the Briton shrugged off a minor mechanical malfunction to set the fastest time in today's free practice sessions.

Hamilton had seen the Ferrari of Felipe Massa dominate the morning run as he himself was forced to cut short his participation five minutes from the end after crawling back to the pits and finishing the session fifth.

But the 23-year-old bounced back in the second of the 90-minute periods after the Italian team had again made all the running, a late effort of one minute 35.055secs enough to dislodge Massa from the top of the time sheets.

"I was pretty happy with today," he said. "The car was consistent and had good overall speed. I had a slight problem with the car at the end of the morning session but it didn't really affect our program."

With a changeable forecast casting uncertainty over Sunday's 56-lap encounter, formula one could see its first wet race of the season without electronic driver aids.

Hamilton admitted difficult conditions could see a similar outcome to the opening race of the season in Australia, where a lack of traction control contributed to only seven cars crossing the line.

"The first time we had wet track was at Jerez and I think everybody was experiencing some problems," he said. "The last time was at Barcelona and BMW seemed to have a very good car in the wet. They were not quite as strong as us I think, but Red Bull were quick also. Ferrari weren't there but I can only assume they were quick.

"It will be tough but I think here, it's slightly different wet race. Elsewhere, it can be quite cold and as soon as you have that, you lose the heat in tyres. Here, it will be wet but still hot so the tires will still be quite warm."

Ferrari's strong showing at least confirmed they will be in firm contention in Sepang after the disaster in Melbourne when both Raikkonen and Massa failed to finish on account of engine failures.

But Martin Whitmarsh, standing in for team principal Ron Dennis, insisted McLaren never doubted the Italian outfit would bounce back from their terrible start.

"Perhaps Australia was a slightly more comfortable victory for us than we had expected. We were comfortably in control," he said.

"But we are under no illusions. I think it has been clear here today that Ferrari are very strong and for the time being at least, they are going to be our major competitors.

"They are still a strong team and we know they are going to be tough to beat during the remainder of the season."

It looked at one point that the engine woes that blighted Ferrari last weekend had resurfaced when Raikkonen came to a stop at turn 12 after just eight laps of running in the morning session.

But the team revealed a miscommunication meant he had merely run out of fuel and the Finn was pleased with a competitive afternoon stint where he eventually finished third, 0.373secs back from Hamilton and behind team-mate Massa.

"We made up for it in the second session," said Whitmarsh. "The car seems to be going well and I'm pleased with what we've done. It's always difficult to say where we are but I think we can face the rest of the weekend with confidence."

He did admit, however, that Ferrari may still struggle to match McLaren's pace in qualifying. "I think it is more like it was last year," he added. "Probably we are not the strongest over one lap but I think in race conditions we have good speed and good consistency. But for sure we will try to improve on that issue."