The opening two practice sessions for the 2010 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prixgot underway today at the Sepang International Circuit, located just outsidethe Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
The MERCEDES GP PETRONAS pairing of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher ranconsistently in the top six throughout the day, ending the morning sessionin second and fourth places respectively, and the afternoon session withNico again in second place and Michael in fifth position.
The focus for the team's running today was to evaluate the BridgestonePotenza tyre compounds available for Sunday's race, the soft option tyre andthe hard prime tyre, alongside setting up the MGP W01 cars for the specificdemands of the fast and challenging Sepang circuit.
STATS
Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Free Practice 1 Free Practice 2 Nico Rosberg 4 MGP W01 / 02 19 laps 1:35.106 P2 30 laps 1:34.443 P3 Michael Schumacher 3 MGP W01 / 03 14 laps 1:35.225 P4 30 laps 1:34.674 P5
Weather Hot and humid Temperatures Air: 27-33°C Track: 40-52°C
NICO ROSBERG "Our programme went according to plan today and we made progress over thetwo practice sessions. The tyre work which we completed was particularlyuseful so we have a lot to go through this evening to see if we can continueto improve the car prior to qualifying. It's always tough here in Malaysiawith the heat and humidity but Sepang is one of my favourite circuits todrive."
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER"I am quite happy overall with our work today and the practice sessions wentvery much as we expected. We did have a an issue with the brakes thismorning so I did not start running right away but once we were out on track,I felt we had good pace. However we have to be realistic about ourperformance here and we might still be lacking a little compared to thefront runners. The good thing is that you can play with the lines a bit tofind time as the track here is quite wide. But in the end, as usual, we willhave to wait and see how qualifying and the weather evolve."
ROSS BRAWN"It has been a busy Friday for the team here in Malaysia for the start ofour first 'home' race. The two dry sessions have enabled us to complete themajority of the planned programme for Nico and Michael, although the trackconditions did change this afternoon following the rain shower. The prioritytoday was to evaluate the prime and option tyres. Whilst all of the teamswere running different tyre programmes, which makes it difficult to predictour relative pace, we are reasonably satisfied with what we achieved and arelooking forward to the challenge of the weekend."
NORBERT HAUG"This is going to be a very challenging race with extreme stress on thedrivers, cars and tyres, and particularly all of the team members who haveto work in real sauna conditions. The heat and humidity is almost guaranteedand rises in the afternoon. It's difficult to estimate where we are todaybut generally we are not where we need to be just yet."
