Hamilton tops Alonso in practise, escapes FIA penalty

Oct 20, 2007, 0:53 GMT

Sao Paulo - World championship leader Lewis Hamilton dominated Friday practise for the season-ending Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix ahead of title rival team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The Briton then escaped a penalty for a tyre rule violations, with his McLaren-Mercedes team saying they were fined 15,000 euros by the ruling body FIA and will have one set of tyres less for Hamilton over the weekend.

Hamilton clocked 1 minute 12.767 seconds on the drying 4.309- kilometres Interlagos track.

Alonso was close behind on 1:12.889 while the rival Ferraris had to settle for third and fourth place on the day. Last year's Brazil winner, local Felipe Massa, had 1:13.075 and the third title contender, Kimi Raikkonen, 1:13.112 minutes.

Hamilton leads a dramatic championship battle as he aims to become the first rookie and the youngest driver to win the world title on Sunday.

The Briton has 107 points, the two-time defending champion Alonso of Spain 103, and the Finn Raikkonen 100 points. On the last three occasions that three drivers fought for the title the second-placed driver ahead of the last race took the crown.

The least the Briton needed in the title drama was a distraction such as the latest probe by the ruling body FIA.

'This must not make me nervous,' said Hamilton.

McLaren took full responsibility for the incident which occurred during the wet morning practise, team boss Ron Dennis and Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug said.

'We made a mistake in this morning's session and used one set of tyres too many on Lewis's car. This was unfortunate and clearly did not provide any advantage,' said Dennis.

Haug said: 'It was a mistake by the team after the installation lap and nothing from which Lewis could have gained an advantage for the weekend during his five laps in the first session.'

According to the rules, drivers are only allowed to use one set of tyres for rain and another one for extreme rain in practise.

Hamilton was only recently cleared in another probe in connection with his driving during a safety car phase at the Japanese Grand Prix.