Malaysia – Free Practice 1: Hamilton in the early morning

A blue and sunny sky welcomes the drivers above the Sepang circuit, on a track heated to 36°C. Without lingering in the pits, as the forecasts are pessimistic for the rest of the day, the drivers perform their traditional installation laps, with Bottas replacing Bruno Senna in the seat of the FW34, as he will do about fifteen times this season.

Paul di Resta is the first to set a timed lap in 2:04.524, naturally beaten by Timo Glock whose Marussia is equipped with hard tires, in 1:44.935. The first top driver to start a timed lap, Jenson Button takes the lead on the timesheet, on hard tires, in 1:39.323. But the Briton yields to Kimi Räikkönen who sets a lap in 1:39.128. On his out lap, Romain Grosjean informs his team that he has a problem at the rear of the car and returns to the pit at a slow pace.

Michael Schumacher is the first to go under the minute and 39 seconds mark, with a time of 1:38.826. The German is then caught and overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, with a time of 1:38.598. After half an hour of testing, the Englishman leads ahead of Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Felipe Massa, Kamui Kobayashi, Sergio Perez, and Heikki Kovalainen.

From his first flying lap, Sebastian Vettel climbs to the provisional top of the standings, with a time of 1:38.535. For his part, Lewis Hamilton completes several laps in the 1:38 range and, despite a wheel lock-up approaching the final corner, takes the best time with 1:38.021.

At mid-session, Fernando Alonso, Charles Pic, and Romain Grosjean are the only drivers without a single timed lap, but the Lotus driver soon returns to the track as his engineers have detected nothing unusual with the Lotus E20. The Frenchman climbs to 15th place before progressing to ninth, less than two-tenths behind his teammate.

Full of hope for the Malaysian Grand Prix, HRT starts its weekend as it did in Australia, with Narain Karthikeyan’s F112 forced to pull over.

Author of his first timed lap, after spending about fifty minutes conducting aerodynamic tests, Fernando Alonso ranks 15th for his first flying lap. From then on, only Charles Pic does not have a time, with the mechanics working around the rear of the Marussia.

After an hour of testing, Hamilton is ahead of Vettel, Rosberg, Schumacher, Grosjean, Webber, Räikkönen, Di Resta, Button, and Hülkenberg, while no driver has yet fitted the white-sided medium tires provided by Pirelli this weekend. The drivers are focusing on evaluating the tires and thus there are few improvements on the track.

Twenty minutes from the checkered flag, Charles Pic finally returns to the track: the Frenchman launches an attack on the stopwatch and completes his first timed lap on the Sepang circuit in 1:48.533.

At the start of the last quarter-hour, the session comes alive, but the medium tires are still not being used and the times evolve very little, partly due to higher fuel loads at the start of the session. But with 8 minutes left on the clock, Heikki Kovalainen is the first driver to complete a lap with the softest tires, allowing him to climb to 17th place, with a time of 1:40.247.

At the end of the session, Lewis Hamilton holds onto his best time at 1:38.021, set on hard tires. The Englishman leads Vettel, Rosberg, Schumacher, and Grosjean. Valtteri Bottas, in 11th, is ahead of Pastor Maldonado, while both Ferrari drivers are behind the Williams. Vergne, in 16th, leads Ricciardo.

Free Practice 1 Standings for the Malaysian Grand Prix: