Sizzling Hamilton dominates both practice sessions

Lewis Hamilton delivered an emphatic signal of his intent when he completed a Friday double by topping the times for Mercedes in both practice sessions for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

In the wake of the controversy that followed championship leader Sebastian Vettel's 'road rage' attack at last month's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Hamilton had decided to put the incident behind him and do his talking on the track.

The Briton, at his sizzling best despite power problems with his car, clocked a best time of one minute and 5.483 seconds in the afternoon's second session to outpace Vettel's Ferrari by 0.147 seconds.

It was a record lap for the Red Bull Ring, where he had set the previous best time in first practice, beating his own record set last year by two tenths of a second.

The three-time world champion's Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was third ahead of Dutch teenager Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team-mate Australian Daniel Ricciardo.

Bottas' fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen was sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of Dane Kevin Magnussen of Haas, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren, Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and Frenchman Romain Grosjean in the second Haas car.

German Vettel leads Hamilton at the top of the drivers' standings by 14 points as he looks to win a fifth world title

Source: Khaleej Times