Hamilton wins McLaren battle

Lewis Hamilton won an all-McLaren battle for early pace ahead of the Australian Grand Prix,pipping world champion team mate Jenson Button for the fastest lap....

Lewis Hamilton won an all-McLaren battle for early pace ahead of the Australian Grand Prix,pipping world champion team mate Jenson Button for the fastest lap at a rain-affected second practice session on Friday. After rain forced drivers back to the pits to change tyres a few minutes into the session,Briton Hamilton emerged during a break between showers to overtake Button for the fastest lap at Albert Park with a time of 1:25.801.

Button,slower by under three-tenths of a second,attempted to wrest back the pace from his compatriot,but their times stood for the remainder of the session as teams grappled with tyre selection amid intermittent showers.

With rain easing to allow the track to dry late in the session,Michael Schumacher pushed his Mercedes to the third fastest lap but was deposed shortly after by Australian Red Bull driver Mark Webber.

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Webbers team mate Sebastian Vettel finished 16th,behind Ferraris Fernando Alonso and in front of the Spaniards Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa. Renaults Vitaly Petrov posted the fifth fastest lap in the session,while Polish team mate Robert Kubica had the 11th fastest after setting the pace in the earlier session.

Hispanias (HRT) Karun Chandhok was again denied a practice time when his car ground to a halt soon after leaving the pit. Paul di Resta marked his track debut at a grand prix weekend with the 11th fastest lap in the first session.

Rajnath Singh warned Pakistan that every inch of its land is within BrahMos’ range as India rolled out its first missiles from Lucknow.

Every inch of Pakistan’s territory now within BrahMos reach: Rajnath Singh

Cities19 min ago

Rajnath Singh warns Pakistan about the reach of the BrahMos missile, praises ‘Operation Sindoor’ and the missile’s technological superiority. He and CM Yogi Adityanath flag off the first batch of BrahMos missiles made in Lucknow, emphasizing their economic impact and thanking Adityanath for his support.

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