Ferrari set early pace at Sepang

Kimi Raikkonen led a Ferrari one-two in Malaysian Grand Prix practice on Friday with the world champions back up to speed after a difficult start to the season.

• Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion who won at Sepang last year, fired in a quickest lap of one minute 35.707 seconds in the afternoon to end Nico Rosberg’s four-session run at the top of the timesheets.
• Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa was second fastest in 1:35.832.
• Neither Ferrari driver scored a point in the Australian season-opener in the Italian team’s worst start to a season since 1992.
• “We had felt the situation here could be different to Melbourne but it is still too early to say where we are, up against the opposition,” said Raikkonen.
• “What we can be sure of is when the car runs trouble-free we are competitive. We hope we can do a good job in tomorrow’s qualifying.”
• Raikkonen had to overcome an early setback when his car’s cockpit filled with smoke at the end of the first session due to a short-circuit in the new KERS kinetic energy system.
• German Rosberg, who was quickest in all three practice sessions at the Australian Grand Prix, and Williams team mate Kazuki Nakajima of Japan had finished one-two in the bright and humid morning session.
• Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in the afternoon, ahead of Rosberg.
• BUTTON QUICK
• Brawn GP’s championship leader Jenson Button looked quick in the morning on the circuit that brought him his first podium in 2004 but Rosberg and Nakajima pipped the Australian Grand Prix winner.
• The Briton was third and seventh fastest respectively with Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello, runner-up in Melbourne, fourth and sixth.
• “My biggest problem was we are locking the tyres and brakes very easily so we need to have a good look at this,” said Button. “We are not quite there yet but we are going in the right direction.”
• McLaren’s world champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh quickest in the morning, a day after he was stripped of third place from Australia for “deliberately misleading” stewards at the post-race enquiry.
• To compound his problems, the 24-year-old was also fined 2,100 euros (1,913 pounds) for speeding in the pit lane on two separate occasions.
• Team mate Heikki Kovalainen was ninth in the afternoon.