SEPANG – Red Bull’s Mark Webber went quickest in both Malaysian Grand Prix practice sessions on Friday in a dominant display which raised hopes he can erase a disappointing start to the season.
Webber, fifth two weeks ago in Melbourne, bested McLaren’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, while his team-mate and 2010 champion Sebastien Vettel focused on testing Red Bull’s misfiring Kinetic Energy Regeneration System (KERS). Britons Button and Hamilton were second and third quickest on the day, ahead of Vettel — who improved on 17th in the morning session — and his much-decorated German compatriot Michael Schumacher in a Mercedes. The top four were separated by just a quarter of a second, suggesting McLaren have emerged as the main rivals to last year’s top team at this early stage of the season.
Vettel spent much of the day checking Red Bull’s KERS speed boost, which went unused during his Melbourne win but which is expected to be vital on the long straights of the Sepang circuit, near Kuala Lumpur. “Obviously there’s not much in it,” Webber said. “We’re all pretty close, give or take a couple of tenths (of a second): who got traffic, who didn’t, how their KERS worked. So far, so good, I’m towards the front somewhere.”
“It’s still early days in the weekend. We got some good dry running in, and the car performed well. Obviously it was reliable, which was a nice bonus, so we got to check all the tyres, and also Pirelli’s new tyre that they brought here.”
Brazilian Felipe Massa was sixth quickest for Ferrari ahead of two more Germans, Nico Rosberg for Mercedes and Nick Heidfeld of Renault, who recovered after a dreadful morning session plagued by mechanical problems.
Both Heidfeld and his Russian team-mate Vitaly Petrov were forced out of the action as Renault brought their cars in for intense inspections of their braking and suspension systems. Ferrari’s two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was back in ninth place ahead of fellow Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso.
“I am not expecting miracles — it is going to be very difficult for us here,” warned Alonso, who finished fourth in Melbourne.
