Raikkonen pips Hamilton in Friday showdown

Kimi Raikkonen pipped Lewis Hamilton to the top spot at the end of Friday practice in Bahrain. The Ferrari driver clocked a best lap of 1m33.527s to finish 0.013s aheaed of Hamilton - both having completed 33 laps. BMW's Robert Kubica was third fastest, 0.2s off the pace.

It was an oppressively hot day in the desert with air temperature peaking at 35 degrees Centigrade and the track reaching 49 degrees.

Felipe Massa ended the day fourth, 0.245s behind Raikkonen and just 0.012s ahead of Fernando Alonso. Nick Heidfeld confirmed BMW's consistency by finishing seventh quickest.

Williams again seem to be on good form and a good bet for points, if the car stays reliable. Wurz was easily sixth fastest and Rosberg eighth. Coulthard and Trulli rounded off the top ten.

Meanwhile at Honda, as if things couldn't get much worse, Jenson Button suffered a dramatic engine failure, spraying water and oil on the track which Massa later spun on, but escaped damaging the Ferrari. Button will now suffer a ten-place grid penalty for changing engines and will almost certainly start at the back of the grid on Sunday.

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