Hamilton leads Malaysian first practice

Hamilton beat Vettel by half a second

Lewis Hamilton got over his Australian GP disappointment to lead first practice of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel was 2nd for Red Bull, half a second behind the McLaren driver.

The two Mercedes cars of Rosberg and Schumacher were 0.8 seconds off Hamilton’s time, while Romain Grosjean was 5th. The Renault suffered a gearbox issue during the session, becoming stuck in seventh gear.

Kimi Raikkonen was 7th, but will be dropped 5 places on the grid for the race, after undergoing a gearbox change.

Valtteri Bottas drove Bruno Senna’s Williams, finishing 11th. The Ferraris were 13th and 15th, as they continue to struggle with the F2012.

The HRT cars propped up the back of the grid, with Narain Karthikeyan only setting 8 laps after transmission problems.

Times from FP1:

 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1:38.021           19
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1:38.535  +0.514   21
 3.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1:38.813  +0.792   21
 4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1:38.826  +0.805   19
 5.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1:38.919  +0.898   17
 6.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1:39.092  +1.071   20
 7.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1:39.128  +1.107   22
 8.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1:39.298  +1.277   23
 9.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:39.323  +1.302   15
10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1:39.440  +1.419   19
11.  Valterri Bottas       Williams-Renault       1:39.724  +1.703   23
12.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1:39.783  +1.762   23
13.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1:39.896  +1.875   16
14.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1:39.910  +1.889   21
15.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1:39.980  +1.959   23
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:40.099  +2.078   23
17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1:40.247  +2.226   19
18.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:40.469  +2.448   23
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1:40.857  +2.836   25
20.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1:41.085  +3.064   23
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1:43.170  +5.149   18
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1:44.580  +6.559   14
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1:45.360  +7.339    8
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1:45.528  +7.507   18