| Free Practise 3 – BMW’s Heidfeld quickest ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi
BMW’s Nick Heidfeld beat the two Ferraris to the fastest time in the final free practice session at Sepang.
Until the German’s late lap, Ferrari had controlled the session,
with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen holding first and second positions
for most of the morning.
As had been the case in Melbourne, McLaren chose not to go for a
low-fuel run in this session. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen
therefore ended up 11th and 16th respectively.
Hamilton had a run through the gravel at Turn 8 on his first lap,
and neither driver threatened the top of the timesheets during the hour.
Raikkonen was the first of the major contenders to set a time, and
his early 1:35.729 was swiftly beaten by teammate Massa, who advanced
to a 1:35.513 by the end of his run.
Both improved further when they re-emerged 20 minutes later, with
Massa remaining two tenths of a second ahead as he lapped in 1:35.388.
Raikkonen moved back ahead of Massa by 0.126 seconds with his last
lap, both both were beaten by Heidfeld, who produced a 1:35.019 with
three minutes remaining.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:35.019 18
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:35.262 + 0.243 17
3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:35.388 + 0.369 17
4. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:35.389 + 0.370 20
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:35.437 + 0.418 16
6. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:35.653 + 0.634 17
7. Piquet Renault (B) 1:35.768 + 0.749 15
8. Button Honda (B) 1:35.781 + 0.762 19
9. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:35.827 + 0.808 16
10. Glock Toyota (B) 1:35.911 + 0.892 21
11. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:35.927 + 0.908 13
12. Alonso Renault (B) 1:36.068 + 1.049 14
13. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.183 + 1.164 14
14. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:36.229 + 1.210 21
15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.490 + 1.471 7
16. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:36.529 + 1.510 16
17. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:36.618 + 1.599 19
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:36.668 + 1.649 15
19. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:36.908 + 1.889 14
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:36.939 + 1.920 21
21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:37.140 + 2.121 12
22. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:37.703 + 2.684 6
| Photos
Don’t forget, all the latest pics are on the KRS photobucket album!
| Free Practise 2 – Hamilton Fastest
Lewis Hamilton beat Felipe Massa to the fastest time in second
practice at Sepang, with the McLaren driver leaping to the top of the
timesheets in the final minutes after Ferrari had dominated the
session.
Ferrari had looked set for a one-two until Hamilton’s late
lap, with the McLarens having been a second off their title rivals’
pace for much of the afternoon.
But as the track temperature cooled, Hamilton produced a
1:35.055 lap to beat Massa by 0.151 seconds. He then set even faster
sector times two laps later before choosing to pit rather than raise
the bar further.
Having missed half the session after running out of fuel in
the middle of the circuit this morning, Massa’s Ferrari teammate Kimi
Raikkonen set the early pace when afternoon practice commenced. The world champion set a 1:36.045 lap on his first run, then improved to 1:35.627 when he tried the soft Bridgestones.
Massa gradually edged closer to Raikkonen’s time, before moving ahead in the final 20 minutes.
He rejoined for another soft tyre run after being beaten by Hamilton, but was unable to improve and had to settle for second. Although Raikkonen got his time down to 1:35.428, he remained third.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:35.055 32
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:35.206 + 0.151 33
3. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:35.428 + 0.373 36
4. Button Honda (B) 1:36.037 + 0.982 40
5. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:36.474 + 1.419 35
6. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:36.493 + 1.438 38
7. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:36.512 + 1.457 30
8. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:36.671 + 1.616 33
9. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:36.756 + 1.701 37
10. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.838 + 1.783 34
11. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:36.879 + 1.824 38
12. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.908 + 1.853 36
13. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:37.106 + 2.051 35
14. Alonso Renault (B) 1:37.328 + 2.273 23
15. Piquet Renault (B) 1:37.331 + 2.276 42
16. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:37.346 + 2.291 37
17. Glock Toyota (B) 1:37.512 + 2.457 35
18. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:37.614 + 2.559 35
19. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:39.021 + 3.966 27
20. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:39.361 + 4.306 30
21. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) No time 1
22. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) No time
Kimi Raikkonen – 2nd: "This morning I lost time
because of a communication problem within the team, but we made up for
it in the second session. The car seems to be going well and I am
pleased with the work we have done. I worked mainly on the harder
tyres, but I think that even with the softs, from what we have seen, we
can be competitive. It is always difficult to say where we are compared
to our rivals, but I think we can face the rest of the weekend with
confidence."
Felipe Massa – 3rd: "I am very happy with these two
sessions. The car proved to be very quick and consistent on both types
of tyre. It’s a shame I was unable to get the most out of the second
set of soft tyres, when I found myself behind Hamilton who was going
slowly. We are working in the right direction for qualifying and the
race."
Luca Baldisserri
– "This morning we got our lines of communication mixed up between the
garage and the pit wall, which left Kimi stuck out on the track without
fuel, but in the afternoon, we were able to get more done, without any
technical problems whatsoever. Both drivers found good settings on
their cars and we got a lot of data on the behaviour of the two types
of tyre. Now we must prepare very carefully for qualifying, because we
know how important it is to start from the front. All in all, we are
satisfied with the way the first day has gone here in Sepang."
Stefano Domenicali
– "The start of this weekend is reasonably positive. Kimi and Felipe
reckoned they were happy with the way the cars went, both over a single
lap and on a longer run, with both types of tyre. From what we have
seen and considering all the usual Friday unknown quantities, I think
we will be competitive in qualifying and in the race."
So, at least it wasn’t a mechanical problem for Kimi, although the Ferrari team shouldn’t be having any kind of problems whatsoever, especially in communication! Are the effects of Todt and Brawn out of the team such a problem? Anyway, you can watch replays of Kimi stopping on track at Sepang here
| Photos
You can check out all the photos from the Friday action in the Malaysia GP album, temporarily placed here.
I love this pic of Kimi, enjoying a read of the Red Bulletin F1 in Sepang today. Want to know what he’s smiling at? At redbulletinf1.com, save a copy of the Friday issue and take a look at page 3.
It shows a picture of Kimi walking through the pitlane after retiring from the Australian GP and says:
"Need a holiday Kimi? Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen decided he needed a bit of retail therapy after last week’s troubled race. Exactly US$1.5m of therapy to be precise, in the form of a luxurious beachfront apartment in Thailand on the island of Phuket."
| Free Practise 1 – Massa Lead Ferrari 1-2
Felipe Massa dominated the opening practice session for the
Malaysian Grand Prix, lapping just over a second clear of the rest of
the field.
The Brazilian led a Ferrari one-two ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen
– despite the latter stopping with a mechanical problem just after the
halfway point.
McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton took third and fifth, split by Williams’ Nico Rosberg.
World champion Raikkonen had set an early benchmark of 1:36.459, a
tenth ahead of his teammate at the time, but on his next run the Finn’s
car suddenly slowed and came to a halt in the run-off. The reason
transpired to be nothing due to reliability, but simply running out of
fuel.
The Ferrari was retrieved under the red flag that was caused almost simultaneously when David Coulthard crashed.
It was later cleared up that it wasn’t a mechanical problem which caused Kimi to stop on track, it was a communication error with the team and Kimi ran out of fuel.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:35.392 20
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:36.459 + 1.067 8
3. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:36.556 + 1.164 21
4. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.578 + 1.186 23
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:36.626 + 1.234 17
6. Alonso Renault (B) 1:37.022 + 1.630 18
7. Piquet Renault (B) 1:37.034 + 1.642 28
8. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:37.218 + 1.826 9
9. Button Honda (B) 1:37.282 + 1.890 17
10. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:37.540 + 2.148 24
11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:37.649 + 2.257 17
12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:37.649 + 2.257 18
13. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:37.776 + 2.384 20
14. Glock Toyota (B) 1:37.782 + 2.390 27
15. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:38.219 + 2.827 26
16. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:38.232 + 2.840 7
17. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:38.707 + 3.315 12
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:38.798 + 3.406 25
19. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:39.046 + 3.654 21
20. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:40.178 + 4.786 11
21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:40.351 + 4.959 14
22. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:41.269 + 5.877 5
FUCK ISRAEL 