Lewis Hamilton has hit back at his critics today by comfortably setting the fastest time in both practice sessions. Both McLarens have shone today with Button coming in 3rd and 4th for the British outfit in a hot and humid Malaysia. However Jenson Button says he has been struggling with the balance and set up of the car, something that he isn't good with adapting to.Lewis on the other hand set the quickest time of the day with a 1:34.175 was .266 seconds quicker than second placed Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull however have had another day of reliabilty problems. In Free practice 2, Webber went off with a suspected engine/gearbox failure and Sebastian Vettel, the favourite for the race complained about a lack of power steering. So the difficult season looks likely to continue for Red Bull. Webber finished 20th with his team mate again driving strongest with 2nd. Mercedes had a good day, In FP1 they had a solid outing with 2nd and 4th for Rosberg and Schumacher respectively. Then in FP2 they had another good show with 3rd and 5th. So things look on the up for the team. Whilst theres been a swap around with Ferrari as they see themselves look quite slow today. It is unclear whether they were heavy but there was definite problems with Massa's car, around the bottom of the diffuser area. Alonso came in 8th then 7th and Massa finished with 11th then 14th. So all in all, not a fast day for the scuderia although they probably did have more fuel. Although the team did say this on their twitter during FP2
"There is a lot of work to do to prepare the race: we can foresee a very difficult weekend," Ferrari's Twitter update during FP2
Also, Kubica kept his momentum from his second place podium in Australia and got his Renault up to 6th in FP1 and then FP2 he made a good 5th. A very strong show from the team that was plagued by controversial issues off the track and a slow car on the track last year. F1heaven covered FP2 today and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who read our live commentary! We will be back for FP3 tomorrow. Free Practice 1 Classification 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:34.921 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1:35.106 |
3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:35.207 |
4 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1:35.225 |
5 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1:35.402 |
6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:35.479 |
7 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:35.955 |
8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:35.959 |
9 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1:36.043 |
10 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:36.100 |
11 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:36.451 |
12 | Kamui Kobayashi | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:36.503 |
13 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:36.645 |
14 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:36.712 |
15 | Paul Di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:36.891 |
16 | Pedro de la Rosa | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:36.899 |
17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1:37.802 |
18 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:38.278 |
19 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1:39.460 |
20 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:39.755 |
21 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:40.159 |
22 | Fairuz Fauzy | Lotus (Test driver) | 1:40.721 |
23 | Bruno Senna | Hispania-Cosworth | 1:41.832 |
24 | Karun Chandhok | Hispania-Cosworth | 1:41.966 |
Free Practice 2 Classification 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:34.175 |
2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1:34.441 |
3 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 1:34.443 |
4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:34.538 |
5 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 1:34.674 |
6 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1:35.148 |
7 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:35.581 |
8 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:35.660 |
9 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1:35.872 |
10 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:35.957 |
11 | Kamui Kobayashi | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:36.018 |
12 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1:36.221 |
13 | Pedro de la Rosa | BMW Sauber-Ferrari | 1:36.325 |
14 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:36.325 |
15 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:36.602 |
16 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1:36.813 |
17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1:37.415 |
18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1:38.454 |
19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1:38.530 |
20 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:38.786 |
21 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:39.061 |
22 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:39.158 |
23 | Karun Chandhok | Hispania-Cosworth | 1:41.084 |
24 | Bruno Senna | Hispania-Cosworth | 1:41.481 |
Thanks for reading, and please comment below and say what you thought of both Friday Practices! Joe
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