Host Mark Webber won his first training session with Red Bull before the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang. His best time was 1: 36.935. The Australian was 0.068 seconds faster than Melbourne winner Kimi Raikkonen. Sebastian Vettel was third.
The typically hot and humid weather forced the teams to think tactically, and so for the most part they decided to procrastinate by using a harder rubber compound for as long as possible. The first fast laps were recorded after about thirty minutes.
Raikkonen ran into some technical problems before and after his fast lap. He was bothered by KERS and the gearbox. Nevertheless, Finc managed to set a better time than Vettl, who drove 21 laps, which was the most in this training session.
Fernando Alonso was Ferrari’s top-ranked racer. He started his XNUMXth race weekend with fourth place, just ahead of Mercedes ’Nico Rosberg. Adriana Sutila, Felipe Masso and Paula di Resto were separated by only four thousandths of a second on the timeline. Lewis Hamilton was slightly more in ninth place. Romain Grosjean was placed on the tail of the top ten, and the duo from McLaren, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, were able to make only the eleventh and thirteenth time, despite intensive work on the settings.
1. Free practice, GP Malaysia
| Racer | The team | Hour | Circles | |
|
1. |
Mark Webber | Red Bull |
01:36.935 |
15 |
|
2. |
Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus |
01:37.003 |
15 |
|
3. |
Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull |
01:37.104 |
21 |
|
4. |
Fernando Alonso | Ferrari |
01:37.319 |
13 |
|
5. |
Nico Rosberg | Mercedes |
01:37.588 |
19 |
|
6. |
Adrian Sutil | Force India |
01:37.769 |
17 |
|
7. |
Felipe Massa | Ferrari |
01:37.771 |
15 |
|
8. |
Paul di Resta | Force India |
01:37.773 |
15 |
|
9. |
Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
01:37.840 |
18 |
|
10. |
Romain Grosjean | Lotus |
01:37.915 |
17 |
|
11. |
Jenson Button | McLaren |
01:38.173 |
16 |
|
12. |
Pastor Maldonado | Williams |
01:38.673 |
16 |
|
13. |
Sergio Perez | McLaren |
01:38.830 |
17 |
|
14. |
Nico Hulkenberg | Clean |
01:39.054 |
17 |
|
15. |
Esteban Gutierrez | Clean |
01:39.204 |
16 |
|
16. |
Valtteri Bottas | Williams |
01:39.208 |
19 |
|
17. |
Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso |
01:39.284 |
17 |
|
18. |
Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso |
01:39.567 |
16 |
|
19. |
Giedo van der Garde | Caterham |
01:40.728 |
17 |
|
20. |
Jules Bianchi | Marussia |
01:40.996 |
14 |
|
21. |
Charles Pic | Caterham |
01:41.163 |
18 |
|
22. |
Max Chilton | Marussia |
01:41.513 |
14 |