Ferrari roared back to business today with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa storming to the fastest times in opening practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Ferrari roared back to business today with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa storming to the fastest times in opening practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
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Driving supremely, former world champion Raikkonen, who won here last year, clocked one minute 35.707 seconds around the 5.5 km Sepang circuit with Massa just over a tenth of a second behind.
It was the perfect response from Ferrari after the opening Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne where the Finn came 15th and his Brazilian teammate failed to finish, as they threw down the gauntlet to Brawn GP.
Britain's Jenson Button, who won in Australia on Brawn's debut, could only manage seventh in 1:36.254 while Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello, second in Melbourne, was sixth.
Separating the Brawn pair from Ferrari's was Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel (1:35.954), Williams' Nico Rosberg (1:36.015) and Mark Webber in the other Red Bull (1:36.026).
A day after he was stripped of his third place in Australia, world champion Lewis Hamilton failed to shine in his underperforming McLaren, struggling to 11th.
Adding to the Briton's woes was a 1,200 euro penalty he picked up for exceeding the pit lane speed during the morning practice session.
But for Raikkonen it was a happy ending after being forced into the pits near the end of the morning practice when smoke filled his cockpit.
Initially it appeared that his fire extinguisher had been triggered, but with smoke also seen around the rear of the car, mechanics later suggested that the KERS batteries may have overheated.
Only four teams are fitted with the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems - Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber and Renault - which recovers some of the energy generated by the car's braking process for extra power.
With the Sepang circuit's combination of long high-speed straights, and tight, twisting turns, KERS is seen to be an advantage here.
The track temperature climbed to 47 degrees C (116 F) as the afternoon practice started, but soon dropped with dark clouds threatening rain that never materialised, depriving the teams of wet weather testing.
Webber set the early ace before Kazuki Nakajima in his Toyota bumped him from the top of the time sheets.
The fastest lap time kept getting lowered as the 90-minute session wore on, with Rosberg, who topped the morning practice, Button, Raikkonen and Vettel all taking turns at heading the leaderboard before Massa took over.
But no sooner had Massa called it a day then Raikkonen lowered it again.
Not everyone found the going easy. Numerous other cars had close shaves, with Timo Glock, Sebastien Bourdais and Nelson Piquet Junior all leaving the track.
But Italy's Giancarlo Fisichella laid claim to the most spectacular incident, ploughing his Force India into the barriers on turn 11.
It left the front and rear wheels on the left-hand side hanging off and other bits of debris scattered nearby.
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