Lewis Hamilton gave the home fans just what they had come for, by comfortably seeing off all challengers to end the final day of pre-British Grand Prix testing at
Silverstone solidly atop the timesheets.
The McLaren-Mercedes star – bidding to reclaim his championship lead following a brace of disastrous outings in Montreal and Magny-Cours – covered 88 laps of the Northants circuit focussing on final evaluation of new aero components ahead of the race, in addition to putting more mileage on mechanical parts and set-up work and reporting no significant problems throughout.
Timo Glock maintained
Toyota's excellent form of late with the second-quickest time, even if that was more than six tenths of a second adrift of his fellow former GP2 Series Champion. The young German – who scored his first points for the Japanese squad in Canada – completed 79 laps concentrating on aerodynamics, tyre comparisons and set-up work, but he lost two hours after his rear wing was damaged in a collision with the
Red Bull Racing of David Coulthard, necessitating a precautionary re-build of his car's rear end.
“That was a good day's testing for us,” the 26-year-old later affirmed. “The wind made it quite tricky because it was quite inconsistent, but in the end we collected some important data and we are happy with the car.
“We had a problem this morning when I had a collision with
David Coulthard. It was a misunderstanding – when I turned in at the end of the Hangar Straight, David was there. I just didn't see him, so I apologise for that.
“The mechanics did a really good job to get the car back into shape, and they worked hard all day because we had a lot to do. We've made a good step in the last couple of weeks, and the last two results have given the team a boost. Now we have to keep up the form at Silverstone next week.”
