
Webber led FP1 by a huge margin
Mark Webber was miles ahead of his rivals in Friday Practice 1 for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Webber set a 1.37.651, more than a second and a half faster than any other driver, to easily slot into first place on the leaderboards. Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher were 2nd and 3rd.
Nico Hulkenberg, driving in Paul di Resta’s Force India, was 4th after a late improvement. Pastor Maldonado held his Pirellis for 19 laps to take 5th.
Ferrari had a quiet session, spending a lot of time running the cars at a fixed speed on the straights for aerodynamic testing. Felipe Massa was 6th and Fernando Alonso 9th.
Nick Heidfeld managed 7th after only setting 6 laps. After he went fastest in the session, his front right brake completely locked. The Renault driver was forced to drag his car back to the pits on 3 wheels, with a destroyed tyre, and sparks and smoke coming from under the car.

Petrov's wheel comes off in speclacular fashion
Worryingly, teammate Vitaly Petrov suffered a front left wheel failure, which caused him to spin into the Turn 9 gravel trap. Jerome D’Ambrosio suffered a similar failure on his front right, when the wheel came completely off at the final corner. The Virgin car would not complete any more miles that day.
Daniel Ricciardo took over from Sebastien Buemi, and just pipped Jaime Alguersuari to 12th.
Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel had very low-key sessions, with the McLaren and Red Bull 15th and 17th repectively. It is known that Vettel was testing a KERS unit, but it is unknown was Webber running the device. Davide Valsecchi drove in Heikki Kovalainen’s car, but was over 6 seconds off the pace.
Narain Kartikeyan’s HRT gave up on him after 10 laps, with smoke pouring out of the back.
Times from Malaysia FP1:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1.37.651 22
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1.39.316 1.665 16
3. Schumacher Mercedes 1.39.791 2.140 29
4. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.40.377 2.726 23
5. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1.40.443 2.792 31
6. Massa Ferrari 1.40.453 2.802 22
7. Heidfeld Renault 1.40.525 2.874 6
8. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1.40.581 2.930 21
9. Alonso Ferrari 1.40.601 2.950 23
10. Rosberg Mercedes 1.40.646 2.995 29
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1.40.734 3.083 21
12. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.40.748 3.097 23
13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1.40.770 3.119 24
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1.40.872 3.221 27
15. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.40.927 3.276 16
16. Trulli Lotus-Renault 1.41.620 3.969 21
17. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1.41.627 3.976 18
18. Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1.41.642 3.991 24
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1.42.154 4.503 18
20. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1.42.540 4.889 20
21. Valsecchi Lotus-Renault 1.44.054 6.403 18
22. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1.45.228 7.577 20
23. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1.46.267 8.616 10
24. Petrov Renault 1.47.932 10.281 4
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