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A clean opening run for both drivers saw the pair head straight back out on track as soon as the green flags were waved at 14:00 local time here in Malaysia. Kimi opted for the medium compound tyres, while Romain stuck with the hard compound used throughout Free Practice 1 as both drivers completed a short first stint of 5 laps.
After a brief break, Kimi departed the garage in typically flamboyant fashion, shorty followed by his team-mate. The pair both set fastest times through the first sector of the lap at different stages during their second runs, but with a focus on race setup the order of the afternoon emphasis was very much on consistency rather than single lap pace.
At the halfway stage, Romain sat 7th in the standings with Kimi in 12th after 8 and 14 laps completed respectively. An extended break while both sets of mechanics adjusted various setup elements on the E20s meant that the drivers hit the track again with 30 minutes left to go – this time with Kimi on the hard compound tyres and Romain on the medium.
While a glance at the timing boards would suggest a fairly unspectacular session for the team, running this afternoon proved to be highly productive as both drivers returned from their final runs satisfied with the setup changes made throughout the course of the day.
Kimi Raikkonen – 15th: “It was an okay day but we still have work to do on the set-up. The steering was a small improvement but we are still working in this area. I feel fine in the car in the hot conditions, and the race will take place later in the day so I don’t expect that to be a problem. I hope we will make some progress tomorrow as the car is quicker than we’ve shown. Having an issue with the KERS in the afternoon was frustrating but I’m sure we’ll have it fixed for tomorrow. The track is exactly as I remember it and I hope for a better qualifying than we had in Australia. I’m looking forward to racing here.”
James Allison, Technical Director: “In some ways it was a somewhat scrappy day after losing a tyre set on Romain’s car in the afternoon due to a cut which meant he lost some laps in the second session. He also had an incorrectly seated wheel nut in the morning. Kimi’s KERS was not playing ball for most of the second session which meant his pace was not fully representative. Those were today’s nuisances, but the positives are that the E20 is working reasonably well. We have good base set-ups for both drivers. Tyre management looks OK despite the hot conditions. The pace of the car on high fuel loads looks promising.”
Pos--Driver---------------Team------------------Time---------------Laps 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.172 28 2. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.533s + 0.361 34 3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.535s + 0.363 29 4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.696s + 0.524 34 5. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.853s + 0.681 33 6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m38.891s + 0.719 27 7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m39.133s + 0.961 29 8. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.297s + 1.125 33 9. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m39.311s + 1.139 22 10. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m39.402s + 1.230 25 11. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m39.444s + 1.272 35 12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m39.464s + 1.292 26 13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.625s + 1.453 20 14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.687s + 1.515 16 15. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m39.696s + 1.524 29 16. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m40.271s + 2.099 27 17. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m40.678s + 2.506 34 18. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.947s + 2.775 33 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m41.464s + 3.292 25 20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m41.681s + 3.509 20 21. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m42.594s + 4.422 18 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m42.874s + 4.702 24 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m43.658s + 5.486 18 24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m43.283s + 5.561 22
At almost exactly 10:00 local time, the Lotus F1 Team E20s roared into life as both Kimi and Romain launched out of the garage for the customary install lap. Sporting matching sets of Pirelli’s hard compound tyres, the drivers ran through each turn with the engineers before heading back to base, completing an oil dip, and parking up.
24 minutes into the session, Kimi surged straight to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1:39.128 on his first flying lap. The Finn would go on to complete a total of 6 laps during his first run before returning to the pit lane and completing a practice launch.
Unfortunately for Romain, his day did not get off to such a flying start as he boxed the car before setting a competitive time after complaining of an unsettled rear end. Thankfully there turned out to be no related issues, and his E20 was able to emerge once more after being thoroughly checked over by the mechanics.
Both drivers hit the track in formation for their second stints at the halfway point of the session. Romain immediately proved that the earlier setback had not affected his confidence by jumping straight into the top five with a 1:38.919 during a 7 lap run, while Kimi stayed out for a longer stint to end his run with the highest number of laps completed at the time – 17 in total.
Having run through just 10 laps up to that point, Romain lit up the rear tyres and flung his E20 back out onto the Sepang International Circuit with 20 minutes to go. Kimi followed suit around 6 minutes later, both once again opting for the harder compound tyre.
These proved to be the final runs for both drivers, as Romain brought his car home for a well-earned break, shortly followed by his team-mate who stopped on his marks for a practice pit stop to round off the session.
Pos--Driver---------------Team-------------------Time---------------Laps 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.021s 19 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.535s + 0.514 21 3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.813s + 0.792 21 4. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.826s + 0.805 19 5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m38.919s + 0.898 17 6. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m39.092s + 1.071 20 7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m39.128s + 1.107 22 8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.298s + 1.277 23 9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.323s + 1.302 15 10. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m39.440s + 1.419 19 11. Valterri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m39.724s + 1.703 23 12. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m39.783s + 1.762 23 13. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m39.896s + 1.875 16 14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.910s + 1.889 21 15. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m39.980s + 1.959 23 16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.099s + 2.078 23 17. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m40.247s + 2.226 19 18. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.469s + 2.448 23 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m40.857s + 2.836 25 20. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.085s + 3.064 23 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m43.170s + 5.149 18 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m44.580s + 6.559 14 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m45.360s + 7.339 8 24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m45.528s + 7.507 18
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