The second session of Friday Practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix produced some interesting results today with Mercedes powered cars setting four of the top five fastest laps.
Lewis Hamilton set fastest lap in the second session after also setting the fastest time during the first session earlier in the day. Sebastian Vettel in the Renault powered Red Bull Racing narrowly set second fastest lap, just two thousands of a second Faster than Nico Rosberg in the first of the Mercedes GP cars. Button’s McLaren came in fourth closely followed by Michael Schumacher in the second Mercedes GP, with less than half a second separating Schumacher from Hamilton.
Commenting on today’s practice sessions Lewis Hamilton said:
“I think we had a good first day today. I’ve got a good feeling in the car – it’s probably the best feeling I’ve had in the car around this circuit. Every time I get to a track this year, it always feels light years better than the last time, which is very positive. We’re still trying to get a better feeling for the tyres, but we’ve made some positive first steps.”
Malaysian GP Second Practice Session Times
| Position | Team | Driver | Best Lap | Time Difference | # of Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLaren | Lewis Hamilton | 1:34.175 | - | 27 |
| 2 | Red Bull Racing | Sebastian Vettel | 1:34.441 | +0.266 | 28 |
| 3 | Mercedes GP | Nico Rosberg | 1:34.443 | +0.268 | 30 |
| 4 | McLaren | Jenson Button | 1:34.538 | +0.363 | 24 |
| 5 | Mercedes GP | Michael Schumacher | 1:34.674 | +0.499 | 30 |
| 6 | Renault F1 | Robert Kubica | 1:35.148 | +0.973 | 34 |
| 7 | Ferrari | Fernando Alonso | 1:35.581 | +1.406 | 34 |
| 8 | Toro Rosso | Sebastien Buemi | 1:35.660 | +1.485 | 39 |
| 9 | Renault F1 | Vitaly Petrov | 1:35.872 | +1.697 | 20 |
| 10 | Force India | Adrian Sutil | 1:35.957 | +1.782 | 32 |
| 11 | BMW Sauber F1 | Kamui Kobayashi | 1:36.018 | +1.843 | 38 |
| 12 | Force India | Tonio Liuzzi | 1:36.221 | +2.046 | 34 |
| 13 | BMW Sauber F1 | Pedro De La Rosa | 1:36.325 | +2.150 | 33 |
| 14 | Toro Rosso | Jamie Alguersuari | 1:36.325 | +2.150 | 39 |
| 15 | Ferrari | Felipe Massa | 1:36.602 | +2.427 | 30 |
| 16 | Williams F1 | Rubens Barrichello | 1:36.813 | +2.638 | 26 |
| 17 | Williams F1 | Nico Hulkenberg | 1:37.415 | +3.240 | 19 |
| 18 | Lotus Racing | Jarno Trulli | 1:38.454 | +4.279 | 34 |
| 19 | Lotus Racing | Hiekki Kovalainen | 1:38.530 | +4.355 | 32 |
| 20 | Red Bull Racing | Mark Webber | 1:38.786 | +4.611 | 13 |
| 21 | Virgin Racing | Timo Glock | 1:39.061 | +4.886 | 23 |
| 22 | Virgin Racing | Lucas Do Grassi | 1:39.158 | +4.983 | 29 |
| 23 | HRT F1 Racing | Karun Chandhok | 1:41.084 | +6.909 | 27 |
| 24 | HRT F1 Racing | Bruno Senna | 1:41.481 | +7.306 | 32 |
Not all teams had such a good day, Mark Webber had engine problems with his RB6 and retired on track after completing only 13 laps in the second session. Williams F1 was also surprisingly off the pace with both of their cars finishing in 17th and 18th place just in front of the slower new teams, Lotus, Virgin and HRT Racing.
Talking about the days performance Rubens commented:
“That was a tough day for us. We carried out lots of interrogations on the car, but we feel that we aren’t as quick as we should be so we have a lot of work to do tonight to find out why that is.”
Rubens young team mate Nico Hulkenberg also had a similar reaction:
“It was a pretty difficult day, certainly not ideal. We had some technical issues on my car but I’m not quite sure what they are yet. We need to get our heads together to find some time for qualifying.”
While the new teams not unsurprisingly brought up the rear of the field all of them completed both sessions putting valuable laps on the cars. Lotus was again fastest of the new teams with Jarno Trulli narrowly ahead of his team mate Kovalainen, During the first practice session of the day Fairuz Fauzy drove in place of Heikki Kovalainen marking the first time that a Malaysian driver has taken part in a Formula One event.
Virgin Racing Pace was just marginally slower than Lotus, but HRT still has a long way to go being an additional two seconds off the pace.
