Malaysian Grand Prix – Final Practice Results

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Lotus F1 Team rounded off the weekend’s final practice session with a strong performance this afternoon in Malaysia as the countdown to qualifying begins. A damp start at the Sepang International circuit quickly cleared, as the shower which preceded Free Practice 3 blew over to reveal beaming sunshine and draining humidity. Nonetheless, with a significant number of wet patches around the track the team opted to send both drivers out on their install laps on the intermediate tyres.

With the standard pre-run checks complete, both Kimi and Romain remained in the garage until a combination of other cars and the sun created enough of a dry line to bolt on a set of slicks.

This they did, promptly emerging from the garage at the halfway stage on matching sets of hard compound Pirelli tyres. Romain immediately shot to the top of the time sheets, closely followed by Kimi in second as the field slowly began to venture further towards the limits of grip on the still drying circuit.

With fast times cropping up here there and everywhere, it became a challenge just to keep up with the running order as the session entered its final stages. After a practice box stop and pull away for the pair, Kimi and Romain were sent out with minutes left on the clock on the medium compound tyre.

Strong runs to end the session saw both drivers sit in the top 5 as the chequered glad dropped. Having racked up 13 laps apiece, Kimi slotted into P4 with a best time 1:37.356, with Romain fractionally behind in P5 having set a 1:37.382.

 Pos-Driver--------------Team------------------Time---------------Laps
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m36.877             16
 2. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m37.320s  + 0.443   15
 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m37.338s  + 0.461   12
 4. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m37.356s  + 0.479   13
 5. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m37.382s  + 0.505   13
 6. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m37.404s  + 0.527   12
 7. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m37.455s  + 0.578   13
 8. Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m37.663s  + 0.786   15
 9. Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m37.776s  + 0.899    8
10. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m37.977s  + 1.100   17
11. Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m38.091s  + 1.214   20
12. Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m38.178s  + 1.301   15
13. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m38.246s  + 1.369   17
14. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m38.285s  + 1.408   16
15. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m38.423s  + 1.546   13
16. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m38.640s  + 1.763   11
17. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m38.794s  + 1.917   18
18. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m39.20$s  + 2.332   16
19. Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m39.704s  + 2.827   15
20. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m40.189s  + 3.312   14
21. Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m41.901s  + 5.024   14
22. Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m42.007s  + 5.130   14
23. Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m42.464s  + 5.587   14
24. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m43.378s  + 6.501   17

Other news:

On Friday night, the Lotus F1 Team hospitality unit here at the Sepang International Circuit was the victim of a fire, causing the team to abandon ship for the rest of the weekend and seek refuge elsewhere in the paddock.