Mark Webber tops Friday free practice at Malaysian GP

After failing to finish in the podium at the season-opening race in Melbourne, Red Bull’s Mark Webber managed to turn his luck around and became the quickest driver in both practice sessions today at Sepang. The Aussie finished the first session about 1.5 seconds quicker than second place man Lewis Hamilton from McLaren. Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher was third fastest indicating that the Petronas-backed squad may have regained the performance it once had during the pre-season tests in Barcelona. However it is still too early to tell.

Felipe Massa from Ferrari was sixth while his team mate Fernando Alonso settled for ninth, ahead of Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg. McLaren’s Jenson Button was 15th while championship leader Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull was 17th. Lotus Renault has seen better days as Nick Heidfeld suffered from a wheel-related problem. He only managed to perform six laps but his quickest lap time was good enough to place him in 7th. Team mate Vitaly Petrov, who finished third two weeks ago in Melbourne suffered from a suspension failure. The Russian ended the session in last place and only completed four laps.

Marussia Virgin’s Jerome d’Ambrosio also caused heads to turn after losing his wheel at the final corner, with suspension failure the suspected cause. Team Lotus managed 16th fastest with Jarno Trulli’s lap time. Davide Valsecchi took over during duties from Heikki Kovalainen in this session and finished in 21st position.

The second session was less dramatic. Narain Karthikeyan suffered from what appeared to be an engine problem while team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi had ended his session prematurely no thanks to a switch problem. Pastor Maldonado spun his Williams while entering the pits and sustained damage. Nevertheless he managed to continue after repairs were carried out.

In this session, Webber maintained his position in first followed by the McLaren duo of Button and Hamilton. Vettel was fourth ahead of Schumacher. Massa was sixth ahead of Rosberg, Heildeld, Alonso and Jaime Alguersuari from Toro Rosso who rounded off the top ten. Vitaly Petrov was 13th. This time around, Trulli was 20th for the Malaysian team while Kovalainen who returned to his cockpit was 23rd. He only managed four laps.

Despite the forecast of rain, it was all dry today. Humidity was high as usual, as it topped 84%. Drivers will get back on track tomorrow at 1.00pm for the third practice session before battling each other in qualifying which starts at 4.00pm. Rain is also expected for tomorrow’s affairs. Please click here for the full results.

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