Williams picked up where it left off in Australia by setting the pace in the first free practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday morning.
Nico Rosberg headed Kazuki Nakajima in a one-two for the Grove-based squad, underlining the competitiveness of the FW31 on a circuit where the team has struggled in recent years.
Rosberg and Nakajima left it until the dying moments to usurp Brawn GP duo Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello from the top of the timing charts.
Melbourne winner Button went fastest two-thirds of the way into the 90-minute session but could not improve on his best lap of 1m36.430s in the final minutes, while Rosberg raised the bar to 1m36.260s and Nakajima was only a fraction slower on a 1m36.305s.
Continuing the team symmetry, the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were next up, 0.3s and 0.4s off the pace respectively.
Raikkonen was forced to pit towards the end of the session when smoke began to billow from his Ferrari. Initially it seemed to be in the cockpit, suggesting that the fire extinguisher had triggered. It transpired that there was also smoke around the rear of the car, and the masks donned by mechanics who moved in to investigate later suggested that the KERS batteries may have overheated.
The symmetry was interrupted by Lewis Hamilton in an improved McLaren MP4-24 on 1m 36.699s, then came the Red Bulls with Mark Webber marginally ahead of Sebastian Vettel with 1m 36.703s and 1m 36.747s apiece. Timo Glock headed Toyota team mate Jarno Trulli with 1m 36.980s to 1m 36.982s to round out the top 11.
Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella enjoyed similar straight-line speed to the Ferraris, and took 12th on 1m 37.025s, ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica on 1m 37.039s and Nelson Piquet on 1m 37.199s.
Piquet, like Raikkonen, did not finish the session after spearing off the round in Turn Six with some sort of failure in the right front of his Renault.
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