SAO PAULO (Reuters):

McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton set the pace in yesterday's free practice for the title-deciding Brazilian Grand Prix. The 22-year-old Briton, who could become Formula One's first rookie champion as well as the youngest tomorrow, topped the timesheets in the day's second session with a lap of one minute 12.767 seconds.

His Spanish teammate, double world champion Fernando Alonso, was second in 1:12.889 on a drying track at Interlagos.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, the last man in the three-way title battle, had led a Ferrari one-two in the wet morning session with a lap of 1:19.580.

The Finn, seven points behind Hamilton and three adrift of Alonso, slipped to fourth in the afternoon behind Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa - last year's winner in his home city.

Raikkonen needs to win today's race and hope his McLaren rivals slip up if he is to have a realistic chance of lifting a Formula One crown that has eluded him before.

Alonso won both his previous titles at Interlagos and hopes for a third in a row tomorrow to make him the first driver since Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957 to win back-to-back championships with different teams.

RULE BREACH

Hamilton's strong showing on a track he saw for the first time only on Thursday was overshadowed by a rule breach in the first session that saw him summoned by stewards.

The governing body said he had used two sets of wet-weather tyres, instead of the one allowed.

There is no set punishment for the offence and McLaren said they had simply made a mistake.