MALAYSIA GP – FRIDAY PRACTICE RESULTS

PRACTICE TWO

Second for Kimi

Kimi Raikkonen was again second in the second free practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The Finn lapped in 1.39.944, which was just 35 thousandths off the 1.39.909 set by fastest man Nico Rosberg for Mercedes. In the other F14 T, Fernando Alonso was fifth in 1.40.103, under two tenths of the fastest time. In the early part of the 90 minute session, both drivers worked on qualifying set-up, before moving on to long runs in race configuration in the second half. While also working on general set up, Raikkonen and Alonso completed 30 and 29 laps respectively, using both the Medium and Hard Pirelli compounds.

QUOTES

Kimi Raikkonen: “This was definitely a positive day and I had a better feeling compared to Friday in Melbourne. I was more comfortable with the F14 T today and even if we had no problems whatsoever, we know there’s still a long way to go and a lot to do. Our programme concentrated on car set-up and on testing the compounds that Pirelli has brought here. The handling seemed to be good even if, as we found on the race simulation, we will have to pay very close attention to degradation, which is particularly high here. Now we will spend the evening carefully analysing all the data we gathered over the day, to try and work out how to improve.”

FP2 Times:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car              Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m39.909s           30
 2.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m39.944s  +0.035s  30
 3.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m39.970s  +0.061s  30
 4.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m40.051s  +0.142s  32
 5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m40.103s  +0.194s  29
 6.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m40.112s  +0.203s  34
 7.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m40.276s  +0.367s  29
 8.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.628s  +0.719s  28
 9.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m40.638s  +0.729s  35
10.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m40.691s  +0.782s  34
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m40.777s  +0.868s  33
12.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.014s  +1.105s  20
13.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.257s  +1.348s  28
14.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m41.325s  +1.416s  32
15.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.407s  +1.498s  34
16.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m41.671s  +1.762s  25
17.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m42.531s  +2.622s  14
18.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      1m43.638s  +3.729s  20
19.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m43.752s  +3.843s  29
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      1m45.703s  +5.794s  31
21.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault                           0
22.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault                              0

 

PRACTICE ONE

Raikkonen in Hamilton’s Wake

Kimi Raikkonen was second and Fernando Alonso was eleventh at the end of the first free practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The Sepang track was still quite dirty as Kimi produced a best time of 1.40.843, 152 thousandths slower than Lewis Hamilton who did a 1.40.691 in the Mercedes. Fernando Alonso’s best time was a 1.41.923, on a morning that featured a spin at Turn 8. During the session, both Ferrari men worked mainly on system checks and getting a first look at the balance of the car, the Finn completing 20 laps and the Spaniard 14.

FP1 Times:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car              Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m40.691s           19
 2.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m40.843s  +0.152s  20
 3.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m41.028s  +0.337s  19
 4.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.111s  +0.420s  20
 5.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.274s  +0.583s  18
 6.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m41.402s  +0.711s  15
 7.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m41.523s  +0.832s  9
 8.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m41.642s  +0.951s  19
 9.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m41.686s  +0.995s  23
10.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m41.830s  +1.139s  22
11.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m41.923s  +1.232s  14
12.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m42.117s  +1.426s  20
13.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m42.365s  +1.674s  21
14.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m42.869s  +2.178s  21
15.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m42.904s  +2.213s  23
16.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m43.825s  +3.134s  18
17.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      1m45.775s  +5.084s  24
18.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      1m46.911s  +6.220s  10
19.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault      1m51.180s  +10.489s 5
20.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes                      2
21.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault                             2
22.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault                             4