Hamilton tops first free practice
F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit
Lews Hamilton topped the timesheets in the opening practice session at Malaysia. The McLaren driver was half a second faster than Sebastian Vettel, followed by both Mercedes AMG cars. Jenson Button meanwhile had an oil leak on his car that cut his own running short.
On the struggling end, Narain Karthikeyan stopped on track with the HRT, while Ferrari also didn't enjoy the best of sessions, continuing their struggle to extract pace from the Ferrari F2012.
Results
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.021 | - | 19 |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:38.535 | 0.514 | 21 |
| 3 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:38.813 | 0.792 | 21 |
| 4 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:38.826 | 0.805 | 19 |
| 5 | 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:38.919 | 0.898 | 17 |
| 6 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:39.092 | 1.071 | 20 |
| 7 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:39.128 | 1.107 | 22 |
| 8 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:39.298 | 1.277 | 23 |
| 9 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:39.323 | 1.302 | 15 |
| 10 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:39.440 | 1.419 | 19 |
| 11 | 19 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1:39.724 | 1.703 | 23 |
| 12 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:39.783 | 1.762 | 23 |
| 13 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:39.896 | 1.875 | 16 |
| 14 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:39.910 | 1.889 | 21 |
| 15 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:39.980 | 1.959 | 23 |
| 16 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Str-Ferrari | 1:40.099 | 2.078 | 23 |
| 17 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:40.247 | 2.226 | 19 |
| 18 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Str-Ferrari | 1:40.469 | 2.448 | 23 |
| 19 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:40.857 | 2.836 | 25 |
| 20 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:41.085 | 3.064 | 23 |
| 21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:43.170 | 5.149 | 18 |
| 22 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:44.580 | 6.559 | 14 |
| 23 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | Hrt-Cosworth | 1:45.360 | 7.339 | 8 |
| 24 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Hrt-Cosworth | 1:45.528 | 7.507 | 18 |
