Friday practice in Malaysia – Lewis Hamilton takes the day

The practice sessions on Friday were dominanted by the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton as he seeks to put Australia behind him as fast as possible. The other McLaren of Jenson Button, the two Mercedes and the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel have all shown pace through the sessions.
Practice 1
In first practice Hamilton lead the way with Button and the two Mercedes in close pursuit, the Renault of Kubica was also still showing the pace that he had in Australia. The new teams were much closer to the back of the pack with the Virgins and the Lotus’ mixing it up together and the HRT Cosworth cars just behind them.
It seems that the Williams cars were either practising long runs or are very slow here. With the Ferraris and the Red Bulls down the order they might not have been the only ones.
1. Hamilton [...]

Australia Practice 2 – Lewis Hamiton and Jenson Button take McLaren to the top

The second practice session in Melbourne was affected by the rain as the teams hit in the garages for some of the session and practised pit stops. The session ended with all the teams trying to put in some times but it was Lewis Hamilton and McLaren that came out on top closely followed by Jenson Button.
Mark Webber showed the pace of the Red Bull by taking the second slot and Michael Schumacher took the fourth spot and finally beat Rosberg in the times. Vitaly Petrov underlined the fact that the Renault seems hooked up at the Australian circuit by posting the fifth fastest time – even if they are running light that’s better than last time out.
The Virgins and the HRT Cosworths/Hispania Racing cars didn’t really make an appearance either – finishing the race is going to be an uphill struggle for both these teams this weekend. Lotus however [...]

Practice 2 in Bahrain and Nico Rosberg takes the top spot for Mercedes

With the second practice session over Nico Rosberg sits at the top of the times for Mercedes beating Michael Schumacher for the second session. McLaren and Mercedes took the top spots for the session to show that they are the teams to beat.

There was also some good times for Nico Hulkenberg who hauled himself up to 6th place in the times. The Ferrari’s seemed to be concentrating on long runs and so don’t really feature in the times but don’t let that fool you – they are faster than that.
It seems that tyre wear is going to play a big part in Sunday’s GP with some teams treating their tyres nicely and some chewing through them extremely fast. The Red Bull seems to be hard on it’s tyres whereas the McLaren is able to look after them better. If this is the case it will play into the hands of [...]