Motor Sport:Lewis Hamilton offered a glimmer of hope Red Bull Racing could be stopped this weekend after setting the bar in first practice for the Turkish Grand Prix.
Red Bull have been the class act of the last two races in Spain and Monaco, notably with Mark Webber winning from lights to flag, leading for a total of 144 laps.
In particular, Red Bull have also been in a league of their own in qualifying as they have claimed pole in all six races to date.
In Barcelona just three weeks ago they were a phenomenal second quicker than their rivals, and the fear is come tomorrow’s one-lap shoot-out they will be equally as dominant.
As Red Bull’s practice times are never a true indicator of their qualifying pace, their efforts in the opening 90-minute session at Istanbul Park suggested they have plenty in reserve.
For his part, Hamilton was comfortably out in front by almost a second from McLaren team-mate Jenson Button with a time of one minute 28.653secs for the 5.338km circuit.
Reigning world champion Button was 0.962secs adrift, with the 30-year-old only having Michael Schumacher for company as the Mercedes driver was a further 0.135secs off Hamilton’s pace.
Fellow German and team-mate Nico Rosberg was fourth quickest ahead of younger compatriot Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull, 1.204secs down on 2008 world champion Hamilton.
Naturally, that is a considerable margin, but with variable fuel loads to be taken into consideration, times are relative at this stage.
Vettel, level on points at the top of the standings with Webber on 78 points but behind on countback as he has only won one race to the Australian’s two, was the most productive as he completed 30 laps.
Webber had to settle for the eighth quickest time, 1.444secs adrift of Hamilton, with the Renault pairing of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov strongly placed in sixth and seventh.
It is also likely Ferrari have yet to show their hand as Fernando Alonso was over 1.6secs behind in ninth, whilst team-mate Felipe Massa was a lowly 13th, a staggering 2.2secs down.