Hamilton fastest in Sepang practice one

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Hamilton led the way in first practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton headed the first practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

Jenson Button made it two McLarens in the top three as the rain stayed away in Sepang.

The new teams were the first to send their cars out on track, with Fairuz Fauzy doing an early stint for Lotus. The Malaysian driver, making a one-off appearance in practice for his home Grand Prix, did an early stint which included a lurid spin at turn 12.

Jaime Alguersuari was next out for Toro Rosso but his run ended early as the car suddenly slowed leaving him to roll slowly into the pits.

He wasn’t the only driver to suffer problems. Michael Schumacher missed the first hour of running as Mercedes fixed an hydraulic problem on his car.

And Sebastian Vettel, who’s been no stranger to reliability problems in his Red Bull this year, complained of a lack of power under acceleration.

Other drivers found trouble on the track. Pedro de la Rosa and Felipe Massa both ran wide at turn 11 and took a trip across the gravel. Later in the session Fauzy went off-track a second time, bouncing his T127 over the kerbs.

The McLaren duo made the early running with Lewis Hamilton setting a 1’34.921. Jenson Button made it a McLaren one-two with a 1’35.207.

They stayed at the top of the times until the last lap of the session when Nico Rosberg split the pair of them with a 1’35.106.

There were few improvements late in the session as most drivers appeared to be doing runs on higher fuel loads.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapLaps
12Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’34.92119
24Nico RosbergMercedes1’35.1060.18519
31Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’35.2070.28625
43Michael SchumacherMercedes1’35.2250.30414
511Robert KubicaRenault1’35.4020.48122
66Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’35.4790.55822
714Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’35.9551.03420
88Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’35.9691.04820
95Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’36.0431.12219
1016Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.1001.17920
117Felipe MassaFerrari1’36.4511.5322
1223Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’36.5031.58228
1317Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.6451.72418
1412Vitaly PetrovRenault1’36.7121.7919
1515Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’36.8911.9725
1622Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’36.8991.97824
1710Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’37.8022.88127
189Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’38.2783.35718
1918Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’39.4604.53921
2024Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’39.7554.83417
2125Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’40.1595.23825
2219Fairuz FauzyLotus-Cosworth1’40.7215.819
2321Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’41.8326.91127
2420Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth1’41.9667.04524

2010 Malaysian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    30 comments on “Hamilton fastest in Sepang practice one”

    1. I think “we are down on power” has replaced “improving the show” as my most hated term in F1!

      1. I think mine has to be “Button’s smooth driving style”, for sure ;-)

    2. So if last week is a guide, that should be Hamilton’s queue to go and do some burnouts tonight…

    3. What is going on with the RB6…..
      please prove Lauda wrong?

      1. No reason to write them off after one practice session. Vettel may have been ninth overall but he was the quickest driver through the middle sector where some of the fastest corners are – just where we thought the RB6 would be strong.

        And if the RB6’s intrinsic downforce is as good as we expect, it’ll be the best car to have in a wet race.

        1. Has anyone noticed practice becoming increasingly testing like, in that the times rather than being representative, tend to be all over the place?

    4. Well, well, well…

    5. Slowest eight cars are all Cosworths, interesting.

      This week I’ll be doing the post-practice analysis as one big article, instead of two separate ones, and it’ll be up after free practice two.

      1. Brilliant Keith,
        Thank you very much!

        Crossing my fingers for RedBull/Vettel

        1. nothing to cross your hands for really , its obvious the pattern of quali so far – redbull slow during practice and then pop-up with pole position .

          So for pole this weekend you can say its redbull , but race win is unpredictable

      2. Four Mercedes cars on top. But also Four of the six Ferrari engined cars packed together.

        I think we will see more spread during following sessions.

    6. Lotus doesn’t look that far off the pace.

      Hope Kubica can keep his run going, he looks pretty strong here.

    7. Schumi was matching Hamilton’s time in the first 2 sectors according to autosportlive but lost time in the third sector. F-duct advantage?

      1. I suspect so, very much. I don’t think we’ll see speed trap data until after qualifying.

        1. But how much can we really read into these times? How are they any more indicative of ultimate pace than any of the pre-season testing sessions and, indeed, free practice times at the first two Grand Prix?

          The Maccas were leading practice sessions before only to be at least half a second off the qualifying pace of the pole setter.

          1. You can’t read much into a list of the fastest times set by each driver in a session. You need to look at all the stints and find out as much as you can about what the drivers were doing during them.

            That’s what I try to do here: Lotus improving but Williams struggle (Malaysian GP Friday practice analysis)

    8. fact is, the power advantage of the Mercedes engine.

      1. It’s not just that, though, because Force India haven’t been up there.

        Mercedes have a good engine but so do Ferrari. And it’s not just a question of power but drive-ability and, more so than last year, fuel consumption.

    9. Sutil ahead of Ferrari’s .. Good sign :) Hope he does the same in qualifying and in race without errors !!!

      1. Would have been interesting to see Fisi driving for Force India again this season. Last season he was consistently quicker than sutil (as long as my memory is correct).

        1. Except in rain, when Sutil is faster and crashes while running in top 10. :)

          1. Unlucky driver in F1 . Raikkonen spoiled sutil’s race many times and now again unlucky to finish in first race. But he s quicker than last yr.
            Force India will be 5th in overall championship. (???)

        2. Actually they both were good, sometimes Fizzi, sometimes Sutil. I believe Adrian will be Top8 next year or in 2011

          1. I mean or in 2012

    10. Race after race people look at times in Practice 1 and make conclusions , teams are setting up cars it doesnt really matter! Cream comes to the top at qualifying, my guess is the RB6 will be near the top again.

      1. This time, if Sebastian goes pole again, hopefully Luscious Liz can be a good girl and bring Seb to the chequered flag first for the race on Sunday.

        I miss Kate and her dirty sister.

    11. All ferraris 8th to 13th except Rosa
      Williams really bad
      Mercedes really good

    12. fact is practice means very little…..the business end starts saturday lunchtime.

    13. The fact is nobody knows what fuel levels the team’s are running

    14. excellent web site lplease compose additional usually

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