McLaren keep Webber honest in Malaysia FP2

Mark Webber continues to head the timesheets in Malaysia, but was followed closely by the McLarens of Button and Hamilton.

The Red Bull was only 0.005 seconds faster than Button, as Friday Practice 2 concluded. Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were each one further tenth off.

The rest of the field were an entire second behind the top 4. The two Renault drivers missed the start of the session, as their cars were still being repaired after their wheel failures in FP1. The incidents were attributed to a material batch problem.

Jerome D’Ambrosio never went out on track after his car’s failure in Practice 1.

Pastor Maldonado briefly led proceedings, but spun at pit lane entry and hit the barrier. The damage to his Williams was only minor, and he was able to continue later on.

The only other yellow flag came courtesy of Vitantonio Liuzzi, whose HRT hit a kerb, which seemed to switch off his Cosworth engine.

Times from Malaysia FP2:

Pos  Driver               Team                     Time               Laps
 1.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault         1.36.876           24
 2.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes         1.36.881   0.005   30
 3.  Lewis Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes         1.37.010   0.134   23
 4.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault         1.37.090   0.214   30
 5.  Michael Schumacher   Mercedes                 1.38.088   1.212   26
 6.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                  1.38.089   1.213   31
 7.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes                 1.38.565   1.689   25
 8.  Nick Heidfeld        Renault                  1.38.570   1.694   16
 9.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                  1.38.583   1.707   27
10.  Jaime Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1.38.846   1.970   31
11.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth        1.38.968   2.092   25
12.  Rubens Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth        1.39.187   2.311   30
13.  Vitaly Petrov        Renault                  1.39.267   2.391   17
14.  Kamui Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari           1.39.398   2.522   29
15.  Sergio Perez         Sauber-Ferrari           1.39.603   2.727   34
16.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes     1.39.625   2.749   31
17.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes     1.39.809   2.933   28
18.  Sebastien Buemi      Toro Rosso-Ferrari       1.40.115   3.239   31
19.  Timo Glock           Virgin-Cosworth          1.40.866   3.990   24
20.  Jarno Trulli         Lotus-Renault            1.41.890   5.014   19
21.  Narain Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth             1.43.197   6.321   15
22.  Tonio Liuzzi         HRT-Cosworth             1.43.991   7.115   14
23.  Heikki Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault            1.44.886   8.010    4

Webber dominates by 1.6 seconds in Malaysia FP1

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