First practice session - Malaysian Grand Prix

[Dixie Flatline]

My lucky wife is down at the pub watching practice, while I'm stuck in the office pretending to do work.

The first practice session has been underway for about 15 minutes, and there's been only one completed lap so far - Zonta has recorded a 1:38.814 in the Toyota.

[Dixie Flatline]

Track temperature is a cool 41 deg C, with air temp 33 deg C. There is a slight breeze wafting over the circuit, and the humidity is 54%.

Liuzzi has joined Zonta on the timesheets with a 1:42.720.

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Liuzzi slightly improves to 1:41.773.

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De la Rosa goes quickest - 1:38.501 in the third McLaren. He's only the third to complete a lap of the Sepang circuit.

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Friesacher records a 1:47.047 in the Minardi - a matter of 8.5 seconds slower that de la Rosa's quickest time, which then blows out to 9.23 seconds, as De la Rosa improves to 1:37.817.

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So far, fourteen drivers have done either one or two installation laps. We have five drivers who haven't yet left the pits, being Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella, Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld and Jarno Trulli.

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Karthikeyan records a 1:44.930, while Friesacher improves to 1:44.416.

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Karthikeyan goes slightly quicker - 1:44.545

Michael Schumacher slots into second quickest with 1:38.565 on his first flying lap of Sepang - some 0.748 seconds slower than de la Rosa, but then goes fastest in the first sector on his next lap.

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Michael shaves 0.1 seconds off his time, but still trails Pedro by 0.594 seconds with a 1:38.411.

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Doornbos in the third Jordan clocks in at 1:41.422, about 0.4 seconds quicker than Karthikeyan and 0.1 seconds slower than Monteiro who does a 1:41.323.

Nine drivers have completed laps:

de la Rosa - 1:37.817
M. Schumacher - 1:38.411
Zonta - 1:38.814
Liuzzi - 1:40.739
Monteiro - 1:41.323
Doornbos - 1:41.422
Karthikeyan - 1:41.872
Friesacher - 1:44.416
Albers - 1:45.891

[Dixie Flatline]

Webber must have had an off in his second sector as it's an abnormally long 70+ seconds. But he must have saved the car because he didn't go in the pits and he's having another lap.

Still de la Rosa out front and he has gone quickest in the first two sectors of the lap he's on a flyer - he completes a lap in 1:36.317.

In the meantime, Webber does a 1:38.474 to slot into third behind de la Rosa and Michael.

[Inigo Montoya]

Slightly off topic, but have you had time to read the Thursday press conferences? Very good stuff there with David, Giancarlo and then Jacques, Kimi. Coulthard is hilarious...
http://www.formula1.com/race/news/2711/733.html

[Dixie Flatline]

Heidfeld goes second quickest with a time of 1:37.939 - a gap of 1.6 seconds between Nick and de la Rosa. He betters that to go 1:37.785 on his next flying lap, only to lose second to Michael who goes faster still with 1:37.620. But de la Rosa remains the man to catch.

[Dixie Flatline]

Haven't read the first presser yet, but I've caught up with Kimi and JV.

So far, only 11 drivers have posted times. We're still waiting for JV, DC, Klien, Button, Kimi, Massa, Sato-San, JPM, Ralf, Rubens, Giancarlo, Alonso, and Trulli.

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Here's a turn up for the books - Liuzzi plonks his RBR second quickest with a gap of just 0.009 seconds to de la Rosa - 1:36.326 to 1:36.317 for de la Rosa.

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JV completes his first flying lap of 1:42.526 - good enough for tenth so far but 6.209 seconds off de la Rosa's cracking pace.

In the meantime, Zonta records the quickest first sector of 24.4s.

JV betters his time to 1:39.780 to go into seventh, but still 3.463 slower than de la Rosa.

Klien jumps up to fifth with 1:38.089, while Zonta also cracks the second sector time.

Sato does a 1:38.727 to move into eighth, pushing JV down to ninth in the end.

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Zonta is your new quickest driver posting a time of 1:34.092, almost 2s quicker than de la Rosa!

There are plenty of people out on track now, with times coming thick and fast. Sato pushes his way into fourth with a 1:37.366, while Klien goes into sixth with a 1:37.725. Sato 3.274 seconds off Zonta's pace, while Klien is 3.633 seconds off.

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Button splits the Williams of Heidfeld and Webber with a 1:37.927.

With less than 10 minutes to go, still no times from Kimi, Felipe, Ralf, Rubens, Fisico, Alonso, and Trulli.

JPM puts his McLaren in fifth with a 1:36.610, while Button jumps to fourth with a 1:36.513.

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Coulthard moves into seventh - ahead of Michael Schumacher - with a 1:37.462, but still nobody has got close to Zonta's time of 1:34.092, which still remains the quickest lap with about 6-7 minutes left to run in the session.

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Kimi goes sixth quickest with a 1:36.943 on his first flying lap. Ralf Schumacher slots in eighth with a 1:37.177.

Luizzi gets to within 1.6 seconds of Zonta with a 1:35.691.

Rubens does a 1:37.843 to slot in 15th, just ahead of JV who improves his time to 1:38.416.

In the meantime, de la Rosa does a 1:35.144 to get within 1.05 seconds of Zonta, while Schumi moves to fourth.

[Dixie Flatline]

The first session is over!.

Times:

1  R. Zonta         1:34.092           17
2  P. de la Rosa    1:35.144   1.052   15
3  V. Liuzzi        1:35.691   1.599   18
4  M. Schumacher    1:36.011   1.919   13
5  J. Button        1:36.513   2.421    9
6  N. Heidfeld      1:36.551   2.459    7
7  K. Raikkonen     1:36.563   2.471    6
8  J. Montoya       1:36.610   2.518    5
9  F. Massa         1:36.963   2.871    4
10 M. Webber        1:36.989   2.897    8
11 R. Schumacher    1:37.168   3.076    5
12 D. Coulthard     1:37.338   3.246    8
13 T. Sato          1:37.366   3.274    9
14 C. Klien         1:37.642   3.550    9
15 R. Barrichello   1:37.843   3.751    4
16 J. Villeneuve    1:38.416   4.324    8
17 T. Monteiro      1:39.571   5.479   18
18 R. Doornbos      1:40.289   6.197   20
19 N. Karthikeyan   1:40.735   6.283   14
20 P. Friesacher    1:43.574   9.482   18
21 C. Albers        1:43.691   9.599   12
-- G. Fisichella
-- F. Alonso
-- J. Trulli

[Dixie Flatline]

It's interesting to see that a lot of the "lesser" drivers driving for "smaller" teams completed a lot of laps, compared to the "better" drivers driving for the "bigger" teams. You have people like Doornbos doing 20 laps, Luizzi and Monteiro doing 18, etc., while Fisico, Alonso and Trulli did no flying laps, Rubinho 4, and quite a few others less than 10 - with the exception of Schumi who did 13.

Could this be concern from the "bigger" teams that they don't want to stress their engines as a consequence of the two race per engine rule? If so, why didn't the smaller teams also be more conservative in their driving?

[flor]

kimi in the gravel....

[flor]

Rubens too

[flor]

Liuzzi also stuck in gravel