The first day of the Malaysian GP was a fruitful one for team McLaren. Although the results were not so spectacular, both drivers managed to achieve good lap times. In Practice 1, Heikki was faster than Lewis and he got a well-deserved third position, while his teammate came fifth. The things changed somehow in Practice 2, when Hamilton set the fastest lap time and positioned himself on the first place in the standings. Kovalainen was not so lucky, scoring a mere 7th place at the end of the second practice session of the day. Here are the official results of Friday @ Sepang Circuit, in Kuala Lumpur:
FRI Practice 1
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:35.392 20
2 1 Kimi R�ikk�nen Ferrari 1:36.459 1.067 8
3 23 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:36.556 1.164 21
4 7 Nico Rosberg W.Toyota 1:36.578 1.186 23
5 22 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:36.626 1.234 17
6 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:37.022 1.630 18
7 6 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:37.034 1.642 28
8 4 Robert Kubica BMW 1:37.218 1.826 9
9 16 Jenson Button Honda 1:37.282 1.890 17
10 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:37.540 2.148 24
FRI Practice 2
Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 22 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:35.055 32
2 2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:35.206 0.151 33
3 1 Kimi R�ikk�nen Ferrari 1:35.428 0.373 36
4 16 Jenson Button Honda 1:36.037 0.982 40
5 15 S. Vettel STR 1:36.474 1.419 35
6 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:36.493 1.438 38
7 23 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:36.512 1.457 30
8 4 Robert Kubica BMW 1:36.671 1.616 33
9 21 G. Fisichella F.India 1:36.756 1.701 37
10 8 Kazuki Nakajima W.Toyota 1:36.838 1.783 34
Also, Lewis Hamilton or 'The Black Pearl of Formula 1', as he is often called, achieved great circuit sector times:1th places in Sector #1(24.578 seconds) & #2(31.308 seconds) and 2th place in Sector #3(39.021 seconds), behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa(38.989 seconds). The radar used for Speed Trap recorded important data for both McLaren drivers:Lewis came first with a max. speed of 302.5 km/h(recorded at 14:06:27 PM), followed on the fifth place by his Finnish mate, who reached a max. velocity of 297.1 km/h(recorded at 14:06:36 PM). In conclusion, McLaren have the first chance tomorrow in the Practice and Qualifying sessions to make a good impression. If the drivers make tiny, but crucial adjustments to their driving strategy, I am very sure they will manage to take the first two places on the starting grid for Sunday's race.
Roll down to read the official press release. Enjoy!
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest lap in Friday�s Free Practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang Circuit. In the afternoon session, Lewis did 32 laps and set a time of 1m35.055. His team mate Heikki Kovalainen was seventh fastest in the second session with 1m36.512 (30 laps) for the 5.543km lap. In the morning session, Heikki was third fastest with 1m36.556 (21 laps) whilst Lewis ended up fifth fastest with 1m36.626 (17 laps).
Lewis Hamilton
�I am pretty happy with today�s results as the car showed consistent pace throughout the session and good overall speed. Unfortunately the morning session was not perfect as I had a slight problem on the car right at the end, but this didn�t really have any effect on our planned programme of tyre evaluation and race set up work.�
Heikki Kovalainen
�That was a good, steady start to the weekend. The car feels pretty comfortable to drive round here, and we made good progress on the set up for the weekend. The track surface had only recently been relayed, and as a result it was constantly evolving throughout the two sessions. The conditions here are always very extreme with the heat and humidity, but this had no effect on the cars performance and I am pretty happy so far with how everything has gone. �
Martin Whitmarsh
�With these back to back races at the start of the season, it is often difficult to keep up the momentum of our relentless development pace; consequently both drivers were evaluating several new parts, on top of the set up and tyre evaluation work that is customary during the Friday sessions. Despite the small gearshift problem on Lewis�s car this morning we are pretty comfortable with the performance of the MP4-23 here. Obviously there is always room to improve and the engineers will be working hard this evening to find those extra tenths, but overall we are reasonably happy.�
Norbert Haug
�We did, as originally planned, a lot of laps today and Lewis, Heikki and their teams found a good set up and achieved quick and consistent lap times on both types of tyres. However this will probably be of little help for tomorrow�s qualifying and Sunday�s Grand Prix as the weather forecast is predicting rain, but we should be well equipped in those circumstances, too."
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