Sakhir, Bahrain: The McLarens and the Ferraris were headed towards a predictable match-up after yesterday's two practice sessions at the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix here.
True to expectations, the tussle between the two outfits continued with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen coming up with a late burst to set the best time of 1:33.527 during the second practice session at the Sakhir racetrack on a hot, humid day.
And leading the way for McLaren was British sensation Lewis Hamilton with a time of 1:33.540.
His teammate and defending world champion Fernando Alonso was comfortably placed in the front of the starting grid with an effort of 1:33.784 till Robert Kubica of the BMW Sauber team came and occupied third with a time of 1:33.732.
Wee bit quicker
Raikkonen's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa was a wee bit quicker than Alonso at 1:33.772.
"It's too early to say where everyone stands, but the performance levels of the top teams seem to be very close," Raikkonen stated. His teammate Massa too predicted a close finish. "It all looks very close, but we have everything we need to do well in qualifying and in the race," Massa confided.
Defending world champions Renault were off the pace with Giancarlo Fisichella finishing in 15th, while Heikki Kovalainen had a steady 12th during both the practice sessions.
"The car felt more consistent to drive that last week. So our challenge will be to produce a good level of performance, and it will still be a very close fight to get into the top ten," Fisichella said.
The Italian stayed buoyant despite yesterday's showing. "I think we had a good day and hopefully that can help us to a better result tomorrow," he shrugged.
Teammate Kovalainen too looked happy. "The final positions look worse than they did last week, but I think that the feeling about our competitiveness is much better.
"Tomorrow will be tough, but we will be fighting hard to get into the final round of qualifying," he said.
