Mark Webber has made the perfect start to his Malaysian Grand Prix weekend by topping the opening practice session at Sepang.
The 36-year-old, who endured another disappointing home race in Australia last weekend, edged out Melbourne winner Kimi Raikkonen by 0.07s with a best time of 1:36.94s.
Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in the second of the Red Bulls ahead of Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil, Felipe Massa, Paul di Resta, Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean.
A KERS problem kept Raikkonen in the garage for the first hour of the 90 minute session.
No times were set in the first 30 minutes, with the majority of quick laps subsequently put down in the second third of the session before the focus switched to long runs.
A second 90 minute practice will take place later this afternoon.
See below for the full Practice 1 result
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time/Retired |
Gap |
| 1 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:36.935 | |
| 2 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:37.003 | 0.068 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:37.104 | 0.169 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:37.319 | 0.384 |
| 5 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:37.588 | 0.653 |
| 6 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1:37.769 | 0.834 |
| 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:37.771 | 0.836 |
| 8 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:37.773 | 0.838 |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:37.840 | 0.905 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:37.915 | 0.980 |
| 11 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.173 | 1.238 |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:38.673 | 1.738 |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.830 | 1.895 |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:39.054 | 2.119 |
| 15 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:39.204 | 2.269 |
| 16 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1:39.208 | 2.273 |
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:39.284 | 2.349 |
| 18 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:39.567 | 2.632 |
| 19 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham-Renault | 1:40.728 | 3.793 |
| 20 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:40.996 | 4.061 |
| 21 | Charles Pic | Caterham-Renault | 1:41.163 | 4.228 |
| 22 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:41.513 | 4.578 |
