The battle for the Formula One headlines resumed on Friday in Kuala Lumper as the circus reassembled for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
As was the case in Melbourne, the first hour-long run of the weekend was a relatively dull affair at Sepang.
After 45 minutes only nine drivers had recorded a time with the major concern surrounding engines and not outright pace.
When the field finally did emerge from the pit lane the brief battle did provide excitement.
It was the Friday testers who again fought for the top position with Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta, McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa and Red Bull’s Viantonio Liuzzi all impressive.
But it was Zonta who ultimately secured F1’s top story when he recorded a time of 1:34.092 to top the timesheet by over a second.
De la Rosa, who had held P1 for most of the morning, was second and Liuzzi, who regularly menaced the Spaniard’s time, was third.
Of the race drivers, Michael Schumacher (fourth) was the fastest.
Ferrari’s seven-time world champion had a busy morning completing 13 laps with a best time of 1:36.011.
BAR’s Jenson Button was half a second down in fifth followed by Williiams’ Nick Heidfeld and McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen.
PRACTICE SHORTS
* Close Shave. Takuma Sato nearly came together with a Minardi during Friday’s first practice run.
The Japanese ace spun his BAR into the path of his oncoming rival at turn four.
* Brake troubles. Mark Webber was another man to spin during session one.
The Australian’s Williams FW27 was reportedly suffering brake troubles.
* Cure found. Malaysia has seemingly found a cure for ‘F1 fever’. Sepang’s giant grandstands were all but empty on Friday morning despite fine weather.
The locals seemingly weren’t prepared to take a day off work to watch only a handful of F1 cars trundle around the circuit.
* Sidelined. The Renault F1 team sidelined its drivers on Friday morning.
Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso completed just two installation laps before hanging up their helmets and watching the remainder of session one from the pit wall.
The team didn’t want to put unnecessary miles on their long-life engines.
Written: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 04:12:29
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- (March 18, 2005)View all headlines from this date
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