| 09:50:18
| Welcome to F1-Live.com and our live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend. The first 90-minute practice session of the day gets underway shortly. |
| 09:51:38
| Today’s two sessions are deemed to be free practice sessions, meaning any engine or gearbox failure does not result in a grid position penalty. |
| 09:53:11
| One man already on the back foot however is Kazuki Nakajima who will drop ten positions on the grid due to his accident with Robert Kubica whilst behind the safety car in Melbourne. |
| 09:55:09
| Most of the post-Melbourne talk has revolved around the performance of Ferrari. Not only did the team make bad calls on strategy, the driver errors in the race and suffer a double engine failure, but the best laps in the race were half a second shy of McLaren Mercedes. |
| 09:56:01
| The team are keen to play down its Australian Grand Prix performance and get back to being front-runners this weekend. |
| 09:57:56
| It is dry and sunny this morning at Sepang. |
| 10:00:12
| The first practice session is now underway. Most will head out, complete an installation lap and pit straight sway for checks. |
| 10:00:35
| The Force India duo of Fisichella and Sutil head straight out. |
| 10:01:10
| Followed by Bourdais, Davidson, Kubica, Rosberg and Piquet. |
| 10:01:54
| In the same session last year, Felipe Massa set the pace on a 1:34.9. |
| 10:02:13
| Most are now on track for an installation lap. |
| 10:02:44
| Some work going on in the Ferrari pit on Massa's F2008. |
| 10:03:10
| The early runners are returning to the pit. |
| 10:04:10
| Jenson Button heads out in his Honda. |
| 10:05:20
| Raikkonen, Massa, Kovalainen, Coulthard and Barrichello yet to go out. No times set as yet. |
| 10:05:41
| Button starts a second lap. |
| 10:05:57
| Coulthard heads out in his RB4. |
| 10:06:41
| Barrichello now out in the second Honda. |
| 10:07:21
| Button returns to the pit without setting a time. |
| 10:08:03
| Kovalainen joins Barrichello on track. |
| 10:10:18
| A very steady installtion lap from Kovalainen. He pits. No one on track. |
| 10:12:22
| Bourdais is heading out in his Toro Rosso. |
| 10:14:07
| It looks like Bourdais is now on his first stint of the session on the hard tyre. |
| 10:14:34
| Bridgestone have the hard and medium compound available this weekend, a step harder than Melbourne. |
| 10:15:47
| Bourdais sets the first timed lap of the session on a 1:43. |
| 10:16:46
| Vettel is out in his STR Ferrari. |
| 10:18:07
| Bourdais improves his time by a second on his second timed lap. The times will fall throughout the session as rubber is put down. |
| 10:19:59
| Vettel completes his first timed lap and is just under a second shy of his team-mate at the moment. |
| 10:20:15
| Bourdais runs wide but is able to continue. |
| 10:20:42
| Timo Glock heads out in his Toyota. |
| 10:22:24
| Vettel improves and moves fastest ahead of team-mate Bourdais. |
| 10:22:53
| Glock runs wide and loses time. |
| 10:23:39
| Glock moves third with his first timed lap. |
| 10:24:11
| Trulli is out in the second Toyota. |
| 10:25:06
| The STR duo have pitted. Nico Rosberg heads out in the Williams Toyota. |
| 10:25:51
| Glock moves fastest for Toyota and then gets a big slide on his next lap. |
| 10:27:36
| Nelson Piquet heads out in his Renault. He needs a better second GP weekend than his first. |
| 10:28:06
| Trulli moves second as Rosberg gets turn in oversteer into the final turn. |
| 10:30:24
| Rosberg moves third fastest behind the Toyota duo. |
| 10:31:30
| Piquet moves P6 in his Renault. The final turn catches out Trulli as he gets bags of opposite lock on to keep the TF108 pointing in the right direction. |
| 10:31:51
| Melbourne winner Hamilton heads out. |
| 10:32:21
| Piquet improves and moves ahead of the STR duo. |
| 10:33:30
| Glock and Trulli are trading best laps at the moment for Toyota. |
| 10:33:54
| Button is back out in his Honda as Hamilton starts his first timed lap of the session. |
| 10:35:06
| Massa and Raikkonen head out for the first time in the session. |
| 10:35:17
| Hamilton's first lap moves him third. |
| 10:35:59
| The Toyota duo pit after a long stint on the hard tyre. |
| 10:36:34
| Raikkonen immediatly right on the pace. No installtion lap at Ferrari. |
| 10:36:55
| Hamilton moves fastest. |
| 10:37:31
| Raikkonen moves P2, just a fraction behind as Piquet takes the scenic route. |
| 10:37:57
| The circuit is now quite busy. A number of drivers on track now. |
| 10:38:16
| Massa's first lap moves him P4. |
| 10:39:32
| Now Massa moves fastest from Hamilton and Raikkonen. |
| 10:40:57
| Raikkonen moves P1 to make it a Ferrari one two for the time being. |
| 10:41:22
| Kovalainen moves third demoting his team-mate a position. |
| 10:42:55
| Alonso is heading out in the second Renault. |
| 10:43:30
| Sutil pulls his Force India Ferrari off track with what seems to be an engine failure. |
| 10:43:54
| Sutil was 17th and slowest at the time after five laps. |
| 10:45:11
| A lot of Ferrari engine failures already this season. Massa, Raikkonen, Bourdais in the Australian GP. And Sutil this morning. |
| 10:45:26
| Coulthard is off, he had just moves P8. |
| 10:45:56
| He has front end damage to the Red Bull Ferrari and is stopped in the gravel trap. |
| 10:46:27
| He ran wide and bounced across some kerbing that worringly broke both left and right front suspension. |
| 10:47:33
| Now we have Raikkonen stopped on the circuit with a problem. |
| 10:47:46
| The Red Flag is out to halt the session. |
| 10:48:04
| Kimi is out of the car. Clearly another mechanical problem. |
| 10:48:41
| Raikkonen had been fastest, a tenth up on team-mate Massa. |
| 10:51:17
| Coulthard's incident is worrying. He ran over some amost flat kerbing and the suspension folded. |
| 10:52:15
| They are still trying to move Raikkonen's abandoned F2008. |
| 10:54:15
| They are craning the Ferrari away so it must be locked in gear. |
| 10:55:43
| Only Kubica, Sato, Nakajima and Davidson yet to set a time. |
| 10:56:14
| Engines fire up in the pit lane as the session resumes. |
| 10:57:15
| A number of drivers head straight out with just over 30 minutes remaining. |
| 10:58:02
| I would not be surprised to see Webber stay in as they look at the Red Bull suspension. |
| 10:59:53
| Massa remains in the pit, most of the others including Webber are back out. |
| 11:00:34
| No sign of Nakajima still. He must have a problem with his Williams. |
| 11:00:57
| Alonso moves sixth in his Renault. |
| 11:01:58
| Massa joins the action in the sole surviving Ferrari. |
| 11:02:30
| Alonso improves to P5. |
| 11:05:15
| Trulli is back out looking to improve. Kubica is out of his BMW and looks like his session is done with a mechanical problem. |
| 11:05:50
| Massa moves fastest in his Ferrari. |
| 11:06:16
| Nakajima heads out in his Williams. He has yet to set a time. |
| 11:06:44
| Trulli did not improve and pitted. |
| 11:07:57
| Webber pulls the second Red Bull off tracl with an engine issue. Lots of smoke from the RB4. |
| 11:08:59
| Webber was 14th before the Renault V8 let go locking the back wheels and sending him into a spin. |
| 11:10:11
| Massa continues his second stint. The McLaren duo are in the pits. |
| 11:10:48
| Raikkonen's Ferrari is back in the pit for repairs. |
| 11:11:09
| A good lap from Piquet moves him sixth just behind team-mate Alonso. |
| 11:11:39
| Massa improves his own best by four-tenths. |
| 11:13:32
| Massa improves again and is now seven tenths clear of the field. |
| 11:14:25
| Piquet pits the Renault. He seems much more on the ball this weekend. |
| 11:14:53
| Massa pits leaving Trulli and Button on track. |
| 11:15:57
| Button picks up two positions and moves ahead of Trulli. |
| 11:17:23
| Trulli is not on a hot lap and will not regain the position from Button at the moment. |
| 11:18:33
| Nick Heidfeld is on track in the BMW Sauber. Kubica has not set a time in this session. |
| 11:19:25
| Kubica is ready to go out however, just awaiting the team to finish with the F1.08. |
| 11:20:18
| Nakajima, 16th, spins his Williams under braking. |
| 11:20:59
| McLaren and Renault send out their drivers. |
| 11:21:17
| Less than ten minutes remain. |
| 11:22:32
| Kovalainen is on a fast lap, but unlikly to beat Massa. |
| 11:22:57
| Kovalainen remains third. |
| 11:23:53
| Kubica heads out with just enough time for a few laps as Hamilton runs off track and continues. |
| 11:24:32
| Nick Heidfeld takes a trip through the gravel trap but is able to continue. |
| 11:24:54
| Hamilton returns pretty slowly to the McLaren pit. He too may have a problem. |
| 11:25:41
| Massa is back out and lapping even faster. |
| 11:26:29
| Massa gains another three-tenths and is now a second up on anyone else. |
| 11:26:44
| Kubica moves into the top ten on his first timed lap of the session. |
| 11:27:16
| Rosberg is on a hot lap and looking to improve on P14. |
| 11:28:22
| Kubica picks up two positions and moves seventh. |
| 11:28:43
| Rosberg gains ten spots and is now fourth as Vettel runs off track. |
| 11:29:40
| Vettel is off again. This time he is in the gravel trap and stuck. He shuts down the engine. |
| 11:30:05
| The chequered flag is out. |
| 11:30:41
| It seems Vettel had a front right brake problem, just as Webber did in Australia. |
| 11:31:54
| So Massa is fastest from Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Piquet, Kubica, Button and Trulli. |
