Malaysia – Free Practice 2: Hamilton Does Not Let Up

The second practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix begins with a temperature of 30°C in the air and 45°C on the track. Clouds are slowly starting to fill the sky over Kuala Lumpur, as Timo Glock, Charles Pic, and Narain Karthikeyan are the first to take to the track. Webber, Grosjean, Alonso, Räikkönen, and Vergne quickly follow suit. The first significant time is achieved by Mark Webber with a 1:41.554, while Pérez has to go wide to avoid Alonso’s Ferrari moving slowly in a fast sequence, and Pedro de la Rosa makes a slight mistake. Vergne takes the lead with a 1:40.529, closely followed by Schumacher, thirty-four thousandths behind. No driver is on medium tires yet.

After 10 minutes, the leadership stabilizes slightly, as after Ricciardo, it’s Schumacher who clocks in at 1:39.867, becoming the first to go under 1:40 in this session. Paul di Resta goes very wide at the hairpin before the pit straight. Hamilton moves ahead of the seven-time world champion by less than three-tenths. After a quarter of an hour, neither Alonso, Vettel, nor the Caterhams have set a time. Button slots in between Hamilton and Schumacher. Hamilton improves his time to 1:38.921, leading Alonso, in second, by eight-tenths before Vettel positions himself at seven-tenths. But the Ferrari driver improves, closing to less than five-tenths of the McLaren.

The French engineer of Sebastian Vettel, Guillaume Rocquelin, indicates to him that hard tires perform better at the end of a stint at this stage of testing. Räikkönen is on track with medium tires (the softest of the range brought by Pirelli to Sepang). Vergne takes second position, three-tenths behind Hamilton before Ricciardo moves to the top of the timesheet with a 1:38.853. Both Toro Rosso cars were on soft tires. Kovalainen surprises Webber in turn 1, both drivers nearly collide but the Australian yields to avoid it. On the next lap, he manages the third-best provisional time, with a 1:39.133.

After 30 minutes into this session, Ricciardo leads ahead of Hamilton, Webber, Vergne, Alonso, Vettel, Maldonado, Button, Schumacher, and Rosberg. Although no precipitation is expected in the next half hour, rain is reported a few kilometers from the track and could disrupt the end of the session. Button secures his eighth place, still on hard tires. In the Sauber garage, Kamui Kobayashi’s car is being disassembled; he is not expected to hit the track for a while and is currently 15th. Grosjean, who was 19th until now, takes fifth position, less than five-tenths behind Ricciardo. Alonso improves and clocks 1:38.891, just 38 milliseconds off the Toro Rosso.

The wind is picking up more and more, a situation that can be troublesome both for the drivers’ handling and for the risk of rain in Kuala Lumpur. Vettel seems slightly struggling with the RB8 and does not improve his times; yet he is on medium tires. On the radio, he complains about the car. Hamilton, who is still on hard tires, takes the lead with a 1:38.816, three hundredths ahead of Ricciardo (medium tires). The Brit strengthens his lead on the next lap with a 1:38.617. Button, also on hard tires, takes third place, less than three-tenths behind his teammate, before positioning himself just behind Hamilton, by 57 thousandths.

After 50 minutes, Hamilton leads ahead of Button, Ricciardo, Alonso, Webber, Vergne, Grosjean, Vettel, Maldonado, and Hülkenberg. Paul di Resta has a scare in the first fast sequence of the circuit but recovers in the grass and rejoins the track, at the cost of well-worn tires. On medium tires, Michael Schumacher takes the lead with a time of 1:38.533. These softer compounds seem to collapse very quickly in the lap, which would explain the difficulties for Red Bull to compete with the McLarens, which are on hard tires. Rosberg takes fourth place, 163 thousandths behind his teammate. The Mercedes cars frame the McLarens.

There is half an hour left in this session, the rain is not showing up. The standings are as follows: Schumacher, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Alonso, Webber, Vergne, Grosjean, and Vettel. On his first lap on medium tires, Button falls two-thousandths short of Schumacher but Hamilton manages to displace the contender by twenty-thousandths (1:38.513). It’s still quite far from the times recorded this morning, notably the best time set by the 2008 world champion at 1:38.0. Still on his medium tire stint, the Englishman improves and gets closer with a 1:38.172.

With twenty minutes remaining, Hamilton is ahead of Schumacher, Button, Rosberg, and Ricciardo. There are few improvements at this point in the session as teams are running stints with larger fuel loads. Kobayashi finally returns to the track, placing 17th ahead of his teammate as well as Petrov, Glock, Kovalainen, Pic, De la Rosa, and Karthikeyan who is at the back. The Japanese driver records the fourteenth-fastest time in his first lap.

Ten minutes before the end of these free practice sessions, nothing changes as Hamilton, Schumacher, Button, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Alonso, Webber, Vergne, Grosjean, and Vettel still make up the top 10. Hamilton makes a minor mistake without consequence in the double right-hander. Among the leading drivers, only Vettel is in the pits currently. He finally goes out on hard tires but is also loaded with fuel. Hamilton makes another small error in the corner leading to the long straight before the last corner, once again without cost for the Briton.

It is thus with this fastest time by Lewis Hamilton that this session comes to an end. He is ahead of Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes and his teammate, Jenson Button. The first Red Bull is seventh, which is Mark Webber.

Results of Free Practice 2 of the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix: