More praise for Heikki as pressure stays on Lewis

When Hamilton made a sensational entrance into Formula One last year, he stole the spotlight from twice world champion Fernando Alonso so effectively that the Spaniard was forced to leave McLaren and seek to rescue his reputation back at Renault.

Now it is Hamilton's turn to come under pressure after he was out-qualified and out-raced by Kovalainen in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Scroll down for more

In his second race for McLaren since swapping teams with Alonso, the Finn finished third at Sepang behind titleholder Kimi Raikkonen, in a Ferrari, and BMW's Robert Kubica. Hamilton was a distant fifth after his charge was held up by a prolonged pit stop caused by a failed wheelnut gun.

The young Brit still leads the championship with 14 points but Kovalainen is only four adrift heading to the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday week.

Lauda, who won championships with both Ferrari and McLaren, said: "Kovalainen doesn't have too much experience with the team, yet he was faster than Lewis the whole weekend.

"Without doubt he was the right choice to replace Alonso because so far he is doing a perfect job."

Whitmarsh agreed with Lauda, adding: "Heikki did a fantastic job, he had a little more pace during the weekend than Lewis. But knowing Lewis, he'll turn up at the next race determined to beat Heikki."

Reasserting his authority within McLaren will be important to Hamilton but so will maintaining his three-point advantage over Raikkonen in the title chase.

However, Ferrari team manager Stefano Domenicali claims local knowledge should put his man in the driving seat in Bahrain.

Ferrari, accompanied only by Toyota, spent six days testing at the Sakhir circuit in February, and Domenicali said: "We take advantage of this into our preparations for the Grand Prix.

"The temperatures and the conditions will be different but having spent more days there than other teams is a positive."