McLaren's Lewis Hamilton made the best possible start to his quest to win the Formula One title at the Chinese Grand Prix by dominating Friday's free practice. The 23-year-old Briton, who could become the sport's youngest champion on Sunday, swept around the 5.451-km circuit in one minute 35.630 seconds in the morning session and clocked the quickest lap in the afternoon as well. “Today has been a very productive day and a very strong day for us, the car's been great,” he told reporters. “I feel confident with the track and I'm in the right mind frame.” Hamilton will, however, be painfully aware that he also dominated all weekend in Shanghai last year but ended his race marooned in a gravel trap and ultimately gave up a 17-point championship lead to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen's teammate Felipe Massa is Hamilton's closest rival this year, trailing by five points with 20 up for grabs in the last two races, and the Brazilian was second best on Friday with a morning time of 1.36.020. That compared with Hamilton's best of 1:35.630. “The balance of the car is very good, both on the first timed lap and over a distance,” said the Brazilian. “The times are very close and maybe I could have been a bit further up the order in the afternoon session if I had not encountered traffic on my last run on the soft tyres. These seem to be very quick, which is no surprise, but also very consistent.” Poland's Robert Kubica, the only other driver left in the title race, showed what a struggle it will be for him to make up 12 points on Hamilton in the last two races as he was only able to muster the 10th fastest time of the day for BMW-Sauber. Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso, who has won the last two races, continued his and Renault's revival with a flying lap late in the afternoon session for the third fastest time of 1:36.024. World champion Raikkonen was fourth quickest with a lap of 1.36.052 in the morning. FIA for standard engine Formula One's governing body said on Friday it intended to change the rules to force teams to use a standard engine from 2010 as part of a cost-cutting drive. The International Automobile Federation (FIA) issued a statement announcing a tender for “a third party supplier of engines and transmission systems” to be used by all teams in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The tender process comes ahead of a meeting scheduled between FIA president Max Mosley and the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) in Geneva after this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. – Reuters __
