Lewis Hamilton dominated Friday practice at Sepang

Lewis Hamilton and his ‘chrome’ McLaren finished both free practice sessions on top, in preparation for this Sunday’s race at the Sepang International Circuit. In the first session the 2008 World Champion set a lap time of 1:34.921 which positioned him in front of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton’s teammate, fellow Brit Jenson Button finished the session in third position ahead of Michael Schumacher. The German who was part of the Petronas Pit Pulse demonstration had problems with brakes during the session but managed to recover.

Robert Kubica, podium finisher at the Australian GP settled for fifth place for Renault. He was closely followed by Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Force India’s Adrian Sutil, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel as well as Sebastien Buemi from Toro Rosso who rounded off the top ten.

Lotus Racing is still proving that it is the team to beat among the new comers with Jarno Trulli’s 19th position, although the team still has a lot to do before it can challenge older and more established teams. He was a about 1.2 seconds quicker than Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock. Lucas Di Grassi finished 21st fastest while Lotus’ third driver Fairuz Fauzy managed 22nd. The Hispania duo of Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok filled the final two spots.

Hamilton was still the fastest driver during the second session ahead of Vettel and Rosberg. Button was fourth followed by 7 times World Champion Michael Schumacher. Kubica, Alonso, Buemi, Petrov and Sutil made up the rest of the top ten. Webber had to settle with 20th position as his Red Bull suffered from an engine problem.

This allowed both Lotus drivers including Trulli and Kovalainen to finish in 18th and 19th places respectively. Fairuz Fauzy handed the steering wheel back to Kovalainen and later revealed to BBC that he may score a race drive sometime this season although there is no official confirmation on this. Both Virgin drivers along with both Hispania men finished in the final four.

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Harvinder Sidhu

Harvinder Singh Sidhu thinks there's nothing better than Formula 1, not even sliced bread. Having written about cars since 2006, he plunged head first into the industry out of a passion for all things four-wheeled and everything in between. The F1 enthusiast has been following the sport since 1999 and has been keeping up with it since. In between races he keeps himself busy as the host of the Driven motoring show and as our version of the Joker.

 

Comments

  • tanasi on Apr 03, 2010 at 12:00 am

    Lotus may have the cooling sorted out – the car obviously can survive the race distance. But it is still a p*g to drive around — I mean, in the next few races I can see them shaving off a few tenths or even a second off from the front runners. But as they edge closer, that’s when it’s gonna get a whole lot harder.

    But good luck to Lotus, I really wish to see them progress.

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  • kimi_ on Apr 03, 2010 at 12:04 am

    I have no idea on what LOTUS F1 is doing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    Why let Fairuz drive KOVALAINEN cars, as he is not the one who race on sunday….Why????

    This cause KOVALAINEN loss precious time to do practise and set up for cars today!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    This is F1, please dont always let NATION PRIDE go on top of heads, SERIOUSLY, because

    Fairuz is malaysian so let him to drive for show off is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!!!! Why

    there are so much better test driver out there but still choose this DUDE coz he is MALAYSIAN!!!!!!!

    WTF, this will only kill NATIONS mentality as we should know “ONLY STRONG SURVIVE” without CARING THE IDENTITY< NATIONALITY OR COLOUR OF SKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    • keypad on Apr 03, 2010 at 12:19 am

      You have no idea because you are dumb moron

      that’s is normal lah stupid for a team to let their test driver to run on free practice.
      it’s not just lotus but force India has been doing it since melbourne when their test driver Paul Di Resta is doing a run on free practice 1

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    • hello its just practice session, nothing wrong letting ur 3rd driver get some time behind the wheel to keep his skills in tune at least… its not like heikki doesnt get to practice at all… he still gets a session n then he will be the 1 doing the qualifying n then go on to race which is ultimately the most important bit…

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    • malaysia memang boleh on Apr 03, 2010 at 1:58 am

      stupid kimi,you’re just another typical stupid bashers!
      if you don’t like this team,just shut your ugly mouth,easy right
      stupid bashers will always be a stupid bashers.
      Who say fairuz is not a good driver, he was a spyker test driver before,if people got talent,people will choose them,if people talk lousy and crap,who cares about them,and who cares about you.

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    • race fan on Apr 03, 2010 at 10:12 am

      kimi is right.

      The team is actually compromising their efforts by leaving Heikki out of his car yesteday and putting Fairuz in. The practice sessions are not actually sessions for a driver to ‘practice’.

      It’s actually part of the data acquisition and finding the optimum set up for qualifying and race. And it is always better to have the actual race driver working through the process since the car needs to be set up for his liking on Sunday.

      Having Fairuz for a 90min session on Friday morning is driven only by PR demands. There is actually very little benefit for Fairuz himself. Drivers hone their skills by going through a proper seasons worth of race weekends. He is also not that daft and inexperienced that sitting in that 90 min in an F1 car is suddenly a new world to him that it ‘raises his game’. C’mon. Fairuz has done it all and he is wasting his time in these sporadic ‘for PR’ Friday sessions.

      He needs to concentrate on a proper full championship somewhere else and win it. It’s actually an insult to Fairuz ability to think that one 90min Friday session can ‘advance’ his skills. It doesn’t!

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      • Tiadaid on Apr 03, 2010 at 1:05 pm

        With today’s lack of testing, race weekends are the only time third drivers get the chance to run. Who’s to say Fairuz’s session isn’t beneficial to the team? Only the team know, so who are we to criticize?

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    • simple_mind on Apr 03, 2010 at 11:46 am

      kimi,

      you said that there’s many more driver better that Fairuz,I totally agree.And if he’s chosen due to he’s Malaysian,I may agree too.But what happened if all the 3 drivers for Lotus are not Malaysian,what more noise you will make?!!

      I really cannot understand why so many bashers talk nonsense about Fairuz.Do this bashers think that they are better than Fairuz?

      Come on!! at least he’s the only Malaysian who drive F1 car NOW,for whatever reason….

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    • malaysia memang boleh on Apr 03, 2010 at 1:39 pm

      in my humble opinion,I think fairuz deserve to drive kovalainen’s car because fairuz is a test driver for that team,as you all can see the changes in lotus t127 engine cover on picture shown above,the car must be test before handing it to the main driver,isn’t that right?
      and I also heard that fairuz is not the only test driver who drove on yesterday’s practice session,but I can’t remember which team

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    • seanZX10 on Apr 03, 2010 at 6:37 pm

      who are u ? malaysians or outsiders? asshole!! i dont agree at all Lotus uses 2 foreign drivers to drive our car…there are soo many talented drivers in Malaysia. wasting money on foreign drivers and still there are at the last pack.

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  • scanzew on Apr 03, 2010 at 12:13 am

    yahoo!! hamilton is top for two

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  • Automotive_Critics on Apr 03, 2010 at 12:17 am

    As expected. The hidden air duct on Mclaren car boost car speed at 2 straight lane before and after final corner. Red bull and Ferrari have an unphill task on the race day.

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    • scanzew on Apr 03, 2010 at 10:37 am

      of course…at australia last week, Hamilton clock 310.3km/h in straight line, meanwhile Button clock 305km/h…Alonso top speed is around 303km/h and Massa got about 300km/h, Nico Rosberg 300.5km/h….

      less drag more top speed…..greaaattt!!

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      • It’s not the best top speed in sepang. Sepang top speed record is 310.55 km/h set by casey stoner from marlboro ducati motogp team !

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  • is that the new ‘shark fin’ behind the air intake cover…???
    goshhhh…….. =)

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  • “Fairuz Fauzy handed the steering wheel back to Kovalainen and later revealed to BBC that he may score a race drive sometime this season although there is no official confirmation on this. ”

    2 words.

    GOD.
    FORBID.

    I’m sure being a friggin fellow malaysian fauzy knows the track like the back of his friggin hand.
    kudos on being slower than kovalainen.
    JUST LAY OFF ALREADY AND DO WHAT THE OTHER SPARE DRIVERS DO.
    E.G : Sit in their trucks or w/e, and pray trulli gets hit by a bus.

    Has ANY OTHER TEAMS let their spare drivers take a practice lap in a race they WON’T BE RACING?
    I cannot contain the wtf-ness inside me. i’m sorry.

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    • Tiadaid on Apr 03, 2010 at 1:07 pm

      There are so many times when third drivers take practice lap in a race they won’t be racing. Just goes to show you haven’t followed F1 for a long time.

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    • Ordinary Joe on Apr 03, 2010 at 11:35 pm

      Of course he’s slower then Kovalainen, its not his freaking job to take risks and set fastest lap times. His job is collect data for the team, test some basic settings and see that everything is in check when kovalainen takes over the wheel.

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  • Tengkurex on Apr 03, 2010 at 6:40 am

    Yes,Lotus had installed a new shark fin on their car’s engine cover.

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  • MANBO on Apr 03, 2010 at 9:42 am

    dont worry….malaysia bolehh..go malaysia go

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  • guanerrr on Apr 03, 2010 at 9:46 am

    Lotus should forget about F1. Let’s spend the money to the poor. Many people still hungry in Malaysia.

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    • race fan on Apr 03, 2010 at 12:24 pm

      That makes sense. Any non governmental organization with a turnover higher than RM1m a year should change their business objectives from whatever they are doing to becoming a charity organisation to help the poor and needy in Malaysia because the govt and other charity NGO are not doing enough.

      This means Petronas should stop being an multi billion oil and gas business and become a charity home, just like what the Lotus F1 team and other organizations should do.

      Good idea.

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  • forza ferrari!

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  • Petronas on Apr 03, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    Malaysians, juz focus on Petronas

    Lotus is not the Lotus of yesteryears , today made worst by certain individuals’ ego

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  • kayel on Apr 03, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    when malaysian driver voice out their confidence by indicate that he’re going to race and score the point soon in F1, we condem’n him…when others driver(not malaysian) informed the same thing, we just read and agree it….this is typical malaysian mindset towards confidence level in sportsmanship, that’s how we cannot progress well in sports…being too humble and down to earth will put you nowhere…sometime you have to voice your confidence to boost up the mental and physical strength…

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