Sepang Free Practice 1 - Fragile Ferrari seizes early advantage

Felipe Massa headed a Ferrari 1-2 in Friday’s first practice at Sepang – but a mechanical failure for team-mate Kimi Raikkonen highlighted the Italian team’s current vulnerability.


Massa dominated the latter stages and finished more than a full second clear of Raikkonen, with the McLarens trailing in third and fifth places.

Heikki Kovalainen was marginally the faster of the Mercedes-powered drivers but neither had any answer for Ferrari’s early pace around the sinuous 3.4-mile track.

Nico Rosberg used the soft-compound Bridgestone tyres to set the fourth fastest time for Williams, vaulting up the timing charts near the end of the session after struggling with braking issues for much of the morning.

The Toro Rossos and Toyotas were the first to set timed laps, but it was McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who set the first real benchmark with a 1m37.265s shortly after the half-hour mark.

The Ferraris soon responded, Massa breaking into the 1m36s to take over the top spot before Raikkonen raised the bar to 1m36.459s.

A few minutes later, however – having completed only eight laps – the world champion was hitching a lift on a marshal’s scooter after pulling his Ferrari off the circuit with a technical problem.

By that time the session had been red-flagged following a big accident for David Coulthard, which comprehensively destroyed the Red Bull RB4's front suspension.

The Scot ran wide across the asphalt run-off on the exit of the 160mph turn 12, but the real damage was done as he attempted to rejoin the circuit proper and was launched into the air by a lethal kerb on the inside of turn 13.

When the session resumed after a 10-minute stoppage, Massa took advantage of his team-mate’s absence to assume control.

He initially contented himself with a 1m36.283s lap before steadily upping the ante until he signed off with a stunning 1m35.392s.

Such was Ferrari’s superiority that Raikkonen remained second fastest despite missing the second half of the session.

That’s potentially an ominous sign for McLaren, although the Woking squad started in similarly low-key fashion in Australia before turning the tables on Ferrari in the afternoon.

Rest of the article here : Fragile Ferrari seizes early advantage - F1 | ITV Sport

Malaysian GP free practice session 1 times

1. MASSA Ferrari 1m35.392s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m36.459s
3. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m36.556s
4. ROSBERG Williams 1m36.578s
5. HAMILTON McLaren 1m36.626s
6. ALONSO Renault 1m37.022s
7. PIQUET Renault 1m37.034s
8. KUBICA BMW 1m37.218s
9. BUTTON Honda 1m37.282s
10.TRULLI Toyota 1m37.540s

Does this mechanical failure counts towards any penalty ?

@Mods :- Are there any plans for fantasy f1 ? We are already late by a race

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dipen01's Signature:

-= The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. =-

and any idea what happneed to mobil1 fantast league on espnstar?

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chic_magnet's Signature:

wat happened abt mobil1

Malaysian GP - Free practice

Sepang, 21st March 2008

Free practice - First session

F.Massa: 1st 1.35.392 20 laps chassis 267
K.Raikkonen: 2nd 1.36.459 8 laps chassis 268
Weather: air temperature 31 °C, track temperature 38/43 °C, sunny.

Free Practice - Second session

F.Massa: 2nd 1.35.206 33 laps chassis 267
K.Raikkonen: 3rd 1.35.428 36 laps chassis 268
Weather: air 34/32 °C, track 51/43 °C, sunny then cloudy

Over the two free practice sessions for the Malaysian Grand Prix, the two F2008 of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa completed around one hundred laps. The day's technical programme, as usual for a Friday, centred on finding the best set up on the car and a comparison of the two types of tyre brought to the track by Bridgestone. Despite losing a bit of time in the morning session because of a misunderstanding between the pit wall and the garage left Kimi stranded on the track with no fuel, the programme was completely with almost no technical problems. "The start of this weekend is reasonably positive," commented Stefano Domenicali. "Kimi and Felipe reckoned they were happy with the way the cars went, both over a single lap and on a longer run, with both types of tyre. From what we have seen and considering all the usual Friday unknown quantities, I think we will be competitive in qualifying and in the race."

Felipe Massa: "I am very happy with these two sessions. The car proved to be very quick and consistent on both types of tyre. It's a shame I was unable to get the most out of the second set of soft tyres, when I found myself behind Hamilton who was going slowly. We are working in the right direction for qualifying and the race."
Kimi Raikkonen: "This morning I lost time because of a communication problem within the team, but we made up for it in the second session. The car seems to be going well and I am pleased with the work we have done. I worked mainly on the harder tyres, but I think that even with the softs, from what we have seen, we can be competitive. It is always difficult to say where we are compared to our rivals, but I think we can face the rest of the weekend with confidence."

Luca Baldisserri: "This morning we got our lines of communication mixed up between the garage and the pit wall, which left Kimi stuck out on the track without fuel, but in the afternoon, we were able to get more done, without any technical problems whatsoever. Both drivers found good settings on their cars and we got a lot of data on the behaviour of the two types of tyre. Now we must prepare very carefully for qualifying, because we know how important it is to start from the front. All in all, we are satisfied with the way the first day has gone here in Sepang."

Source : AFCA.

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dipen01's Signature:

-= The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. =-

i think they are ok as long as they dont replace any major parts.. not sure what the list of those is.. i know engine and gear box are

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bottle's Signature:

There was NO mechanical failure. He just ran out of fuel

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Nikhil's Signature:

Exams suck !!!

^^^ In post above

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dipen01's Signature:

-= The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. =-

The last time i asked Safina about it, he said he is getting a better one in place this time . He probably has run into some technical snags

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khimera's Signature:

Until the final minutes of this afternoon’s practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen topped the timesheets for Ferrari.

With ten minutes remaining of the 90-minute session, Lewis Hamilton peeled out of the pit lane in his McLaren Mercedes and vaulted to the top of the timesheets with a best lap of 1:35.055s, just over a tenth clear of Massa...
F1 : Hamilton sets the Friday pace - Sepang - F1-Live.com

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bottle's Signature: