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. | Car | Driver | Car | Best lap | Laps | |
1 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’34.921 | 19 | |
2 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’35.106 | 0.185 | 19 |
3 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’35.207 | 0.286 | 25 |
4 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’35.225 | 0.304 | 14 |
5 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’35.402 | 0.481 | 22 |
6 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’35.479 | 0.558 | 22 |
7 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’35.955 | 1.034 | 20 |
8 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’35.969 | 1.048 | 20 |
9 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’36.043 | 1.122 | 19 |
10 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’36.100 | 1.179 | 20 |
11 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’36.451 | 1.53 | 22 |
12 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.503 | 1.582 | 28 |
13 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’36.645 | 1.724 | 18 |
14 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’36.712 | 1.791 | 9 |
15 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’36.891 | 1.97 | 25 |
16 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’36.899 | 1.978 | 24 |
17 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’37.802 | 2.881 | 27 |
18 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’38.278 | 3.357 | 18 |
19 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’39.460 | 4.539 | 21 |
20 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’39.755 | 4.834 | 17 |
21 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’40.159 | 5.238 | 25 |
22 | 19 | Fairuz Fauzy | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’40.721 | 5.8 | 19 |
23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’41.832 | 6.911 | 27 |
24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1’41.966 | 7.045 | 24 |
2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
Icthyes
2nd April 2010, 4:51
I think “we are down on power” has replaced “improving the show” as my most hated term in F1!
James_mc
2nd April 2010, 12:19
I think mine has to be “Button’s smooth driving style”, for sure ;-)
US_Peter
2nd April 2010, 4:54
So if last week is a guide, that should be Hamilton’s queue to go and do some burnouts tonight…
vet4snak
2nd April 2010, 5:02
What is going on with the RB6…..
please prove Lauda wrong?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd April 2010, 6:27
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.
Mike
2nd April 2010, 15:40
Has anyone noticed practice becoming increasingly testing like, in that the times rather than being representative, tend to be all over the place?
MEmo
2nd April 2010, 5:02
Well, well, well…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd April 2010, 5:07
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.
vet4snak
2nd April 2010, 5:11
Brilliant Keith,
Thank you very much!
Crossing my fingers for RedBull/Vettel
curedcat
2nd April 2010, 6:48
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
PeterG
2nd April 2010, 8:02
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.
Karan
2nd April 2010, 5:15
Lotus doesn’t look that far off the pace.
Hope Kubica can keep his run going, he looks pretty strong here.
Pradeek
2nd April 2010, 5:17
Schumi was matching Hamilton’s time in the first 2 sectors according to autosportlive but lost time in the third sector. F-duct advantage?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd April 2010, 5:24
I suspect so, very much. I don’t think we’ll see speed trap data until after qualifying.
A.K.
2nd April 2010, 5:42
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.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd April 2010, 17:47
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)
mac v2
2nd April 2010, 5:44
fact is, the power advantage of the Mercedes engine.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd April 2010, 6:18
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.
Sankamesh
2nd April 2010, 6:01
Sutil ahead of Ferrari’s .. Good sign :) Hope he does the same in qualifying and in race without errors !!!
jds
2nd April 2010, 6:19
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).
Pradeek
2nd April 2010, 7:08
Except in rain, when Sutil is faster and crashes while running in top 10. :)
Sankamesh
2nd April 2010, 8:41
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. (???)
bob
2nd April 2010, 8:42
Actually they both were good, sometimes Fizzi, sometimes Sutil. I believe Adrian will be Top8 next year or in 2011
bob
2nd April 2010, 8:42
I mean or in 2012
Darren
2nd April 2010, 6:18
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.
vet4snak
2nd April 2010, 6:31
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.
bob
2nd April 2010, 8:39
All ferraris 8th to 13th except Rosa
Williams really bad
Mercedes really good
gaz
2nd April 2010, 10:27
fact is practice means very little…..the business end starts saturday lunchtime.
trev
2nd April 2010, 12:08
The fact is nobody knows what fuel levels the team’s are running
Lavonda Casad
25th April 2010, 15:22
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