Prac One: Hamilton quickest

Editor

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in what proved to be very standard first practice in Malaysia, lacking in both drama and excitement…

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in what proved to be very standard first practice in Malaysia, lacking in both drama and excitement.

The McLaren driver had a brief tussle with Sebastian Vettel for the P1 slot midway through the session with duo swapping places four times.

But, in the end, it was Hamilton who was quickest with a 1:38.021, which put him half a second ahead of the reigning World Champion.

Nico Rosberg was third quickest with Michael Schumacher fourth as Mercedes put their innovative DRS-activated F-duct to good use on the long Sepang straights. However, the duo were still eight-tenths adrift of Hamilton’s best.

Romain Grosjean continued his impressive run with Lotus as he claimed fifth place ahead of Mark Webbber and his more illustrious team-mate Kimi Raikkonen while Paul di Resta was eighth.

Jenson Button was in ninth place after an oil leak meant he was not able to see out the session, completing just 15 laps.

It was another worrying session for Ferrari with Felipe Massa 13th, 1.875s off the pace, and Fernando Alonso down in 15th place. The Spaniard spent a good part of the session in the pits and only set a lap time in the latter half of practice.

HRT were again at the very back of the pack, over seven seconds off the pace. Narain Karthikeyan also ran into reliability issues and stopped his car out on track after just eight laps.

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

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