Lewis Hamilton maintained his dominance of the 2008
Formula 1 World Championship by ending the three-day pre-Belgian and Italian Grands Prix test at Monza atop the timing screens – sending out a warning to
Ferrari that he clearly intends spoiling the
Scuderia's party on home turf in a fortnight's time.
The Briton took over from McLaren-Mercedes team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen for the final day, spending 97 laps continuing the Woking-based outfit's focus on the evaluation of mechanical and aerodynamic set-ups to close out proceedings just over four tenths clear of title rival
Kimi Raikkonen – and encouraged for the forthcoming races.
The defending
F1 World Champion, for his part, similarly concentrated on set-up work, covering 79 laps of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza before Luca Badoer conducts a final shakedown of the scarlet F2008s that will be taken to Spa-Francorchamps next weekend at Maranello's Fiorano test track on Tuesday.
“It was a good day,” Raikkonen underlined, “during which we looked to fine-tune the car for this track as well as trying a few new things. I would say we have done a good job, even if it is too early to say what the situation will be here during the race weekend. It was a pleasure to meet with President Montezemolo, who visited the track today.
“Now we have to try and do everything as well as possible to get back to winning again, starting with the race in Spa. The world championship? I will give it my best shot, and then we can count the points at the end.”
Home hero
Giancarlo Fisichella was a popular third-quickest for the improving
Force India, the experienced Italian covering a marathon 114 laps as he conducted set-up and wing level evaluations in a bid to optimise balance and braking over the kerbs, ahead of what will be his twelfth Italian Grand Prix. The VJM01 once again ran faultlessly, allowing the Roman to complete more than 600km and bring the Silverstone-based squad's total test mileage to more than 1,700km.
