FP2
A few minutes ago the second free practice session in preparation for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, the third round of the F1 championship came to an end. In the afternoon session Vitantonio Liuzzi and Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen returned to action, having lent their seats out to Scotland’s Paul di Resta at Force India and Malaysia’s Fairuz Fauzy at Lotus this morning.
Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren set the fastest time (1.34.175) ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull (1.34.441) and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg (1.34.443). Fernando Alonso, who completed 34 laps in 1.35.581, was seventh quickest, while the other F10 of Felipe Massa ended up in 15th with a time of 1.36.602 after 30 laps.
Even more as usual for a Friday, the team concentrated on working towards a race that looks challenging. That is down to the extreme tyre wear and the demanding layout of the Malaysian track, as well as the performance shown by rivals such as Red Bull and McLaren. The third and final free practice session is scheduled for tomorrow at 1 PM local time.
FP1
The third round of the Formula 1 World Championship got underway this morning at Sepang, with the first free practice session, for the twelfth running of the event at this track. The ninety minutes of track time featured appearances from Paul di Resta, the English Force India test driver, standing in for Vitantonio Liuzzi and Malaysian test driver, Fairuz Fauzy, at the wheel of the Lotus instead of Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen. Topping the time sheet was Lewis Hamilton in 1.34.921, while McLaren team-mate Jenson Button was third (1.35.207) sandwiching the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg (1.35.106.)
First of the Ferraris was Fernando Alonso, eighth in 1.35.959, having completed 20 laps, while team-mate Felipe Massa did two more on his way to posting the eleventh fastest time in 1.36.451. Neither Ferrari man was able to find an ideal balance on the F10 and Felipe especially suffered with some additional difficulties on the front end. The team has a lot of work ahead of it this afternoon, in the second session which starts at 2pm local time, on the red hot Sepang track, which today saw air and track temperatures of 32 and 38 degrees respectively.
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