The Ferrari of Felipe Massa dominated the first practice session at Sepang, lapping just over a second quicker than the rest of the field. The Brazilian driver led a strong Ferrari performance with Kimi Raikkonen finishing with the second quickest time of the session despite stopping half-way through the session with a mechanical problem.
Raikkonen set the early pace with some blistering laps before suddenly coming to a halt, causing a red flag to be shown. Luckily for the Finn it wasn t a mechanical issue the F2008 had merely run out of fuel.
Raikkonen s red flag was waved at almost exactly the same time that David Coulthard also brought out a red flag. Coulthard ran his RB4 wide on Turn 12 and attempted to rejoin the track at Turn 13. However as he took his car over the inside kerbs, his suspension shattered and he flew into the gravel.
It was miserable morning for Red Bull with Mark Webber also having issues around 20 minutes after Coulthard s accident, Webber pulled into the support pits with smoke billowing from the rear of his car.
Towards the rear of the field, Sebastien Vettel spun his Toro Rosso into the gravel after a suspected brake problem; Adrian Sutil managed just five laps in his Force India car before smoke started to pour from the rear of his car and he was forced to retire from the session.
Unofficial Times for Practice Session 1
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Massa Ferrari 1:35.392 20 2. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.459 + 1.067 8 3. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.556 + 1.164 21 4. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:36.578 + 1.186 23 5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:36.626 + 1.234 17 6. Alonso Renault 1:37.022 + 1.630 18 7. Piquet Renault 1:37.034 + 1.642 28 8. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:37.218 + 1.826 9 9. Button Honda 1:37.282 + 1.890 17 10. Trulli Toyota 1:37.540 + 2.148 24 11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:37.649 + 2.257 17 12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:37.649 + 2.257 18 13. Barrichello Honda 1:37.776 + 2.384 20 14. Glock Toyota 1:37.782 + 2.390 27 15. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.219 + 2.827 26 16. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:38.232 + 2.840 7 17. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:38.707 + 3.315 12 18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.798 + 3.406 25 19. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:39.046 + 3.654 21 20. Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:40.178 + 4.786 11 21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:40.351 + 4.959 14 22. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:41.269 + 5.877 5
