Mark Webber remained calm about Red Bull’s form despite topping both practice sessions at Sepang today.
The Australian was a full 1.6 seconds quicker than the rest of the field in first practice in Malaysia, although McLaren’s Jenson Button was within 0.005s of his afternoon pace.
“We look okay,” said Webber. “Obviously it was still early days in the weekend, we have got good dry running in, the car is reliable which is always a nice bonus so we got to try out all the tyres - including Pirelli’s new tyre - so not too bad.”
He preferred not to read too much into either his large morning margin or the afternoon’s closer times. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
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F1 Standings Ahead of Malaysian Grand Prix
Formula 1: Mark Webber Fastest in First Practice at Sepang Circuit
Formula 1: Malaysian Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Formula 1: Malaysian Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel both within a quarter of a second—setting the stage for a qualifying clash between the top two teams Saturday.
There was a gap between those drivers and the rest of the field on a humid but dry day at the Sepang circuit. Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were fifth and seventh, respectively, and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was sixth.
Both Renault drivers were sent out midway through afternoon practice, with Nick Heidfeld setting the eighth-fastest time of the session, bettering Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in ninth and Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari in 10th.
Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado had the 11th-best time in the session after he ran onto the grass while trying to enter the pit approach road and spun into a fence. ESPN
Team mate Rubens Barrichello was right behind him on 1m 39.187s, ahead of Petrov on 1m 39.267s, the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez on 1m 39.398s and 1m 39.603s, and the Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil. The Scottish rookie again did a good job to lap in 1m 39.625s despite the valuable track time he lost to Nico Hulkenberg this morning, while the German had a costly off at one stage and could not better 1m 39.809s.
Sebastien Buemi took his Toro Rosso round in 1m 40.115s after sitting out the morning session, then Timo Glock pleased Virgin no end with 1m 40.866s which was a second better than Jarno Trulli’s best of 1m 41.890s for Lotus. The Italian’s team mate, Heikki Kovalainen, was only 23rd on 1m 44.886s, and they were separated by the improving HRTs of Narain Karthikeyan on 1m 43.197s and Tonio Liuzzi on 1m 43.991s. The Italian’s car stopped out on the circuit at Turn Nine at one stage, but he was able to bang in one quick lap once it had been recovered.
Jerome D’Ambrosio did not run, after his front suspension clevis pin failure this morning. Formula 1
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