Malaysian Grand Prix – Friday Practice
I added a quick note about the first practice session as a comment at the end of my post about this weekend’s schedule.
There’s no mistaking the softer tyres (the “option” tyre) this time – the white band (a painted groove on each tyre) is very clear.
It’s a bit overcast for the second practice session; my notes are after the cut.
No confirmation as on whether Raikkonen’s had an engine change. He won’t use that engine in this session because they can use a different engine in practice – it’s the race engine that has to last two races, so he’ll either get a penalty and start with a new engine or take the risk and hope that engine gets him to the end on Sunday.
The hard tyres seem to lose grip in the last corner, giving a few of the drivers a challenging “moment”.
Apparently there’s been rain about 3:30pm for the past few days, and the race will start at 3pm so that could make for some excitement.
Liuzzi runs wide, all four wheels off track, kicking up dust as the rumble strips rip into the “plank”.
Massa knocks almost a second off this session’s fastest lap as he posts 1:35.780 on soft tyres.
As usual, just after the commentators say (driver X) is doing well, he goes off track; so far X has been Sutil and Webber but I’m sure there’ll be more. 
Raikkonen isn’t going to make friends by blocking Rosberg’s fast lap … not that lap times are all that important in this session – it’s more about testing tyres & setups under different fuel loads.
Having said it’s not all about lap times … Button is way down in P13, almost 2secs off the pace. 
15mins left of this session; fastest lap is still Massa’s 1:35.780 set ~45mins ago.
Albers has lost the right rear tyre on his Spyker – looks like it delaminated under braking. The carcass slipped off and is in the middle of the track, and now there are red flags out with ~12mins left. (Remember that the clock isn’t paused for red flags as of this year.)
The pit lane lights go green with just 8mins left on the clock.
Webber is stuck just off line in his Red Bull – looks like an engine failure. There’s a brief yellow flag as MW directs the marshals to push his car onto the grass.
Session ended.
Fastest: F.Massa (Ferrari) 1:35.780; P2=Fisichella; 3=Kovalainen; 4=Raikkonen; 5=Rosberg; 6=Wurz; 7=Kubica; 8=Schumacher; 9=Hamilton; 10=Heidfeld. (Button=15; Barrichello=21)
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blog.henman.ca » Malaysian Grand Prix - Qualifying on
Mon, 9th Apr 2007 7:03 pm
[...] miscellany and whatever else comes to mind – written by an Englishman in Canada. « Malaysian Grand Prix – Friday Practice Malaysian Grand Prix – [...]
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