Todays first session saw the Williams, Brawn GP, Red Bull and Ferrari fighting it out to be fastest. Nico again ended up on top with his Williams team mate second after the hour and a half session which remained dry throughout.

Lewis Hamilton managed to claim seventh position but finished the session early in the pits with his team removing the floor of his car  His team mate Heikki however only managed 7 laps and spent the majority of the first session in the garage with his car in bits.

The final few minutes were pretty manic. Both the Renaults went off into the gravel, with Piquet seeming to get a puncture - which will need to be investigated by the team and Bridgestone. However the main drama came from Kimi Raikkonen - who’s fire extinguisher went off in his cockpit just as he was setting green sector times and about to improve on his lap time. 

The Finn had to loosen his seat belt on his way back to the pits and try to raise himself out of the car as it was still moving because the extinguisher was freezing his legs. Its believed that this incident was caused by a KERS issue as the trouble seemed to come from where the batteries for this function are located in the drivers cockpit.

Free Practice 2 which predominately also remained dry saw this KERS issue revisit Kimi but is less spectacular style. It was always felt that Sepang would be a real test for this new system with the circuits high temperatures, however no doubt it will be the forecast of rain which will be worrying its users most. The teams will have to monitor closely the amount of rain that gets into the batteries!

Despite more KERS problems Raikkonen set the fastest lap of session two with his team mate Massa finishing closest to that (+ 0.125 off his pace). Again it was then the Red Bulls, Brawn GP & Williams drivers who rounded off the top eight. Kovalainen managed to get back out and do 40 laps, finishing 7th with his team mate struggling with set up and finishing the day 11th.

Once again several cars went off the circuit, but the most spectacular accident coming from Giancarlo Fisichella crashing into the barrier at Turn 10. Most of the drivers fastest times came in the dying minutes. Despite the high track temperature many teams were struggling to get the most from the harder tires, needing several laps to get up to temperature.

Its looking close again for qualifying tomorrow but hopefully this time Kimi and Ferrari can get up front too.

Free Practice 1

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps

 1.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:36.260           27

 2.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:36.305 + 0.045   25

 3.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.430 + 0.170   20

 4.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.487 + 0.227   22

 5.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:36.561 + 0.301   21

 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:36.646 + 0.386   18

 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:36.699 + 0.439   16

 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:36.703 + 0.443   23

 9.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:36.747 + 0.487   25

10.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:36.980 + 0.720   27

11.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:36.982 + 0.722   26

12.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:37.025 + 0.765   20

13.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:37.039 + 0.779   18

14.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:37.199 + 0.939   20

15.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:37.241 + 0.981   18

16.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:37.395 + 1.135   12

17.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:37.634 + 1.374   22

18.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:37.640 + 1.380   17

19.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:38.022 + 1.762   19

20.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:38.483 + 2.223    7

Free Practice 2 

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps

 1.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:35.707            40

 2.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:35.832  + 0.125   38

 3.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:35.954  + 0.247   40

 4.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:36.015  + 0.308   39

 5.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:36.026  + 0.319   36

 6.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:36.161  + 0.454   37

 7.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:36.254  + 0.547   31

 8.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:36.290  + 0.583   35

 9.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:36.397  + 0.690   40

10.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:36.401  + 0.694   35

11.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:36.515  + 0.808   30

12.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:36.516  + 0.809   34

13.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:36.628  + 0.921   32

14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:36.639  + 0.932   29

15.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:36.640  + 0.933   20

16.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:36.875  + 1.168   36

17.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:37.267  + 1.560   38

18.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:37.278  + 1.571   30

19.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:37.432  + 1.725   27

20.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:37.930  + 2.223   37

All Timing Unofficial

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it’s very hot in malaysia, so maybe the fire extinguisher took the initiative in making kimi to still feel cool and fresh..