Two long straights fused at a hairpin and a selection of fast,
flowing corners provides contrasting racing from that seen on Australia’s
street circuit at Albert Park. As the
Formula One circus arrives at the first racing circuit of the season at Sepang
International, thrilling racing packed full of overtaking is anticipated.
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| Photo: Exampaper.com |
With teams keen to look after their tyres, searching for the
optimum time to go out to use the one set they can spare for the session, the
first half an hour on track resembled a ghost town. As the period crept on, a lone Marussia broke
the silence. Max Chilton set the first time of the session
with a 1.42.5, a time he cut by a second on his second flying lap. A few minutes later, Sergio Perez directed
his McLaren round the circuit in 1.38.8, around two seconds faster than his
more experienced team mate, Jenson Button.
With 47 minutes left of the session, Grosjean emerged
sporting a new front wing for the weekend.
Back to a familiar set up after a poor race in Melbourne, he pushed hard
on his initial flying lap, going flat out through turn 13 rumbling over the
kerb to record a time of 1.39.3. Improving
this time by one and a half seconds he pounded in a 1.37.9 to go fastest.
Mercedes showed great pace on their first timed laps with
Nico Rosberg setting a time of 1.37.5 on his second flying lap snatching the
top spot from the Frenchman. Red Bull
revealed their hand as Rosberg’s time was overshadowed by Mark Webber’s 1.37.0, which he later
improved with a 1.36.9. Vettel was just
behind, 2 tenths off his team mate.
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| Webber was fastest in the first practice session. Photo: burnleycitizen.co.uk |
With twenty seven minutes remaining, Esteban Gutierrez lost
control into turn 14 after blasting up behind a slow moving Felipe Massa. This incident was followed by a lock up from
Alonso causing a momentary departure from the track. Completing significantly less laps than the
rest of the field, the Ferrari’s of Alonso and Massa finished the session four
tenths and eight tenths off the pace respectively.
After outpacing his team mate following their first flying
laps, Adrian Sutil suffered a collapsed front wing after mounting a kerb. The Force India appeared to be lacking flexibility
as the ride height also had to be adjusted on the car of Di Resta. Sutil was later told over the team radio to
stay off the kerbs. Finishing sixth and
eighth fastest, despite their issues, they are emerging as front runners in the
midfield, and if they stay true to this form, will overtake McLaren’s position
in the pecking order. William’s dismal
start to the season continued as they finished sixteenth and nineteenth fastest.
Last to set a time was Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen. Starting the weekend with a new front wing
and new bodywork, a KERs issue sprung up during the session requiring major
work to be completed during the session.
The Finn’s first flying lap saw him set the second fastest time with a
1.37.4.
Towards the end of the session degradation of the tyres
became evident. With the teams using the
same set of tyres for the whole session, they tumbled over the precipice of
peak performance. After completing sixteen
laps, the hard tyres on Sebastian Vettel’s car were propelling rubber missiles
across the track and Lewis Hamilton could be heard reporting over the radio
that his were destroyed. Having only
completed twelve laps, chunks appeared to be missing from Felipe Massa’s
tyres. Only Lotus, with their flexible
car, together with a laid back, smooth Iceman driving style seemed to be able
to combat the punishing effects of the double right handed corners on the left
front tyre. Having topped the timesheet,
Red Bull showed they have a car with good pace, but lag behind in the quest to
optimise tyre performance. Red Bull and
Lotus went into the second practice session evenly matched.
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