GP – Free Practice 2: Hamilton regains the upper hand

For the second free practice session in Malaysia, the second round of the Formula 1 season, it was Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren who was the fastest. The young Briton gained the upper hand in the very last minutes over the Ferraris, who were set to achieve a second double after this morning’s performance in Free Practice 1. [See LIVE Free Practice 2]

It was Kimi Räikkönen who emerged as the favorite after the first minutes of this session. The 2007 world champion missed half of the morning tests due to a fuel failure but immediately posted good lap times in the afternoon.

The Finn was then overtaken in the last twenty minutes by his teammate, Massa, on soft tires, just like Lewis Hamilton. The top three are already within 0.4 seconds of each other.

A Honda brilliantly climbs into the top 5 of this ranking with Jenson Button placing the surprising RA108 at unexpected levels, while Vettel, in the Toro Rosso, achieves another feat with the 5th fastest time. He remains, however, nearly a second and a half behind the leader of the day.

The gaps are indeed very high this weekend. The last driver, as proof, is 4.3 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton despite favorable weather conditions contrary to the rain predictions so far.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) sets a good 6th fastest time. The Italian tested only the hard tires in this session and is ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, who only ranked in 7th place.

Kubica is still not in the top 5. He ranks 8th in the first BMW, an underperformance compared to last week’s Australian GP results, but the driver had already applied the same strategy by waking up only for the third free practice… Heidfeld, his teammate, is 13th.

A Force India, that of Fisichella, is placed in the top 10. He is ninth, ahead of Nakajima in the Williams. Rosberg only takes the 12th time after his good performance in free practice 1.

Barrichello with Honda was one of the most active on the track along with Trulli. They both completed 38 laps. The Brazilian is 11th with the RA108.

Renault made very good times this morning when Alonso and Piquet took the 6th and 7th positions. The results are much more modest in this second session with only the 14th and 15th times. Alonso, who spun, is three thousandths ahead of his young teammate!

The Super-Aguris occupy the last positions, while David Coulthard, like Bourdais, has no time on the clock. The former is without a car after his impressive accident during free practice 1, and it’s under repair. Bourdais, for his part, had an engine failure on his warm-up lap.

Malaysian GP – Free Practice 2 Results

Watch the LIVE Free Practice 2