GP – Free Practice 1: Massa strong, Räikkönen OUT

Felipe Massa opened the Malaysian Grand Prix, the second round of the Formula 1 World Championship, at full throttle. The Brazilian led a Ferrari one-two in Free Practice 1 at the Sepang circuit.

Massa was over a second faster than all his competitors, benefiting from a mechanical failure that occurred on Räikkönen half an hour after the start of this first session of the weekend. [See LIVE Free Practice 1]

The McLarens were less fast than last week in Australia but are in the top 5. Heikki Kovalainen took the third position, ahead of his teammate by less than a tenth, in 5th position. Nico Rosberg, in the Williams FW30, clocked the 4th fastest time of the session in suitable weather conditions.

The reigning world champion, Kimi Räikkönen, was simply a victim of a fuel shortage half an hour into the practice session, abruptly interrupting his program… almost simultaneously with that of David Coulthard. The Red Bull driver rode too high on a curb at turn 12 and broke his suspension, ending up in the gravel at the next turn. His teammate, Mark Webber, stopped a few dozen minutes later due to an engine failure of the Renault RS28.

The times at the end of this first practice session came in at the very last minute. Rosberg, in fact, placed 4th in the final lap while Massa showed strong performance in his last 5 laps, consistently clocking faster times.

Fernando Alonso in the Renault recorded the 6th fastest time this morning, ahead of his teammate, Nelson Piquet, by just 12 thousandths of a second. The young Brazilian driver was the most active with 28 laps completed during this session.

The first BMW is only 8th with Robert Kubica. The Pole did not do many laps (9 laps) and preferred to get his bearings on the track, he confirmed. His teammate, Nick Heidfeld, is only 11th with 17 laps.

Jenson Button (Honda) and Jarno Trulli (Toyota) both complete the top 10. The Honda delivers a modest performance so far, but well above the expectations of their supporters. His teammate, disqualified last week in Australia, Rubens Barrichello, takes the 12th fastest time.

Two other red flags were reported this morning with the spin of Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso). He achieved the 15th performance, while Adrian Sutil (Force India) suffered an engine failure after just a quarter of an hour.

The Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais recorded the 18th fastest time, far behind his competitors, over 3.4 seconds adrift.

Malaysian GP – Free Practice 1 Results

Watch the LIVE Free Practice 1