Free practice 1

Good morning and welcome to ESPN's live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend. FP1 gets under way in just under half an hour, with plenty of questions to be answered...

...and the big one is: Just what is going on at McLaren? The team hopes to have some fixes in place following its poor display in the Australian Grand Prix, but there's only so much that can be done in a week.

McLaren sporting director Sam Michael yesterday wouldn't fully rule out a switch to the old car in future - showing the extent of the trouble the team's in - but it is focused on the MP4-28 for this weekend at least

Now, depending on where you are in the world it could be a pretty tough hour to be awake, but we would love to hear from you with your questions and comments throughout the session. You can email us using the link above or get in touch via Twitter @ESPNF1

It looks a bit brighter than that now, with Laurence reporting a "Nice and warm start to the day"

Kho gets the accolade of first comment and says: "We seem going to have more clearer standing for Big 4 teams."

It's looking that way, with Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes all strong.

Byron asks: "Any idea about the progress of the double drs devices that lotus were trialling at the end of last season? and red bull trial double drs over the testing period?"

Just to point out (sorry to get picky) that it's not actually a double DRS as it isn't linked to the DRS, so these have been called Drag Reduction Devices (DRDs). We haven't seen one run in a race yet as teams struggle to get the device to switch on at the right speeds, but Lotus is the most advanced in its research here and still has the slots around its air intake, so it hasn't given up on the concept

There will be a lot of Tweets from Dickie Stanford in here - the Williams team manager posts some brilliant pictures

Carlos from Portugal asks how Laurence is doing. He's up and running in the media centre - having been hard at work there speaking to all the drivers yesterday - and says of Kuala Lumpur: "Bloody amazing. Not actually in KL at the moment, but spent three days there earlier in the week. Top food, cheap hotels and hot weather."

FP1 is go,. with Ricciardo first out on track

Now, we might have been a bit slow on the green light then, but it was because I was putting the finishing touches to some very interesting news. Caterham has confirmed to us at ESPN that the team held merger talks with Marussia over the winter

Speaking of Marussia, Max Chilton heads out on track:

Chilton shows his inexperience too, asking "Is the pit-lane limit 60 here, not 100?" To which he's told that it's 60km/h in practice sessions and only 100km/h for qualifying and the race. A lot to take on board as a rookie

Robert emails in from Darwin to ask: "Hi, what is the current weather update at the Sepang circuit at present? I am not able to watch P1 live at this stage, I was hoping you can relay this through your live commentary. Thanks!"

It's hot and sunny at present, Robert, with no real threat of rain (though there always is one in Malaysia). We've seen heavy downpours in the afternoons around 1630 local time, so FP2 should stay dry too as it starts at 1400 local time. Different matter for qualifying and the race though

No times set so far, and Mark Webber heads out for his first installation lap; the last man to do so

Hulkenberg swaps places with Webber as we keep just one car on track

Hard tyres are the order of the morning session. Pirelli has brought the hard and medium tyres this weekend because the heat and abrasive asphalt really test its tyre compounds

Benjamin asks: "Is this going to be another cat and mouse mind games with the top teams not willing to show off much about their cars?"

No, we get less of that in free practice as teams need to see how the car performs on this circuit for the race. Long runs can give an indication of race pace, and we usually see them in the afternoon. FP1 is generally spent testing new parts, so pace here might show a team with some good upgrades

The track is empty once again, with air temperature up at 30C at 10am already

Track action! Bianchi is out on track ... and he's back in the pits again

I must admit I was really impressed by Bianchi last weekend in Australia. It's now a well-read statistic, but in case you missed it he set the 11th fastest lap in the race, just 0.05s slower than Vettel's best

We're all quiet again, which means the drivers will be feeling the heat. The drivers really feel the temperatures when they're in their race suits but not out on track

While it's quiet out on track I thought I'd share an email we've had in this morning:

"Hot Brazil is 11.13pm, so a very good time to be watching P1, I am English & living here for 6 years. Memories from childhood include my ownership of a green & yellow Lotus, "Jim Clark", & my brothers B.R.M, "Graham Hill", early Scalextric of course. I was 10 years old in 1965, & my first live event was 1976-77, at Brands Hatch, when James Hunt was star of the show. I still follow with great interest even if it means staying up till 5.00am"

I for one am always jealous of anyone who got to stand on grass banks watching the likes of Clark, Hill and later Hunt wring the necks of their cars

Bianchi is told he can jump out of the car and has about 20 minutes until he needs to head out again

Bianchi might be having a break but Chilton heads out on track. He has the full 3.4 miles to himself

The DRS zones this weekend are between turns 15 and 1 (the pit straight) and turns 14 and 15 (the back straight before the final hairpin) with each zone having its own detection point

Finally a time! Chilton does a 1:42.513 as Perez comes out to join him on track

Practice start for Perez at the end of the pit lane and he blasts away towards turn one

Bill emails in from Toronto to say: "I don't get it! All the teams are bitching about not getting enough test time and here we are 20 mins into FP! and nobody wants to go onto the track. Let me guess, after the race everyone will say that they had updates for their cars but didn't have an opportunity to test them> What gives???"

As it's the first time the cars have been run this weekend, after installation laps the teams have to make certain adjustments, replacements and changes which take time. Unfortunately the cars are too complex to just switch on and send out for numerous laps immediately!

Chilton improves his best (and the only) time to a 1:41.845

Another improvement from Chilton as he does a 1:41.513, but Perez is going quicker as you would expect

Button heads out on track too - McLaren with a lot of work to do today

Perez does a 1:39.653 on his first timed lap

Perez lowers his best mark to a 1:38.830

Button sets his first timed lap and it's a 1:41.039

Interesting... Perez runs on to the kerbs out of turn eight and some of the car's diffuser appears to break off at the rear

I can't deal with the excitement; we're half way through the session and now have NINE cars on track!

Sill just three timed laps though as Button lowers his best to a 1:39.609

Grosjean was going quickly but runs wide a turn 13. He still goes second, though

Hamilton heads towards the final corner with his DRS wide open. I can't help but feel Mercedes will be strong here...

I'll take that as my first semi-successful prediction. Hamilton goes quickest with a 1:38.113

Grosjean gets it all together this time round and goes quickest with a 1:37.915

We're already seeing quicker times than last year: Hamilton was fastest in FP1 in 2012 with a 1:38.021

Rosberg goes top with a 1:37.588 ahead of Hamilton by a quarter of a second

All change again as Webber goes fastest with a 1:37.075

Button returns to the pit lane with a right rear puncture

Vettel makes it Red Bull one and two as he does a 1:37.354

Maldonado does a 1:38.673 for 7th fastest. Williams has a lot of work to do too this weekend as it tries to find the pace in the FW35. Unlike McLaren, it seems to think it has a very quick car - and had it prior to Malaysia - but has lost its way with it

Webber improves again to a 1:36.935

Raikkonen stood next to his car and watching on as Lotus mechanics replace the bodywork on the sidepods

Barnard asks: "Is Friday practice seen as a test session or practice for the GP?? If a testing day can they then run "illegal" parts, or parts that won't be able to pass scrutiny?"

Well the car has to pass scrutineering on Thursday, but it can still run questionable parts after that if it wishes. There's nothing to stop the teams, but it would be a waste of time for them if the parts are illegal

Vetetl improves to a 1:37.104

The reason Raikkonen hasn't been out yet:

Sutil with a lock-up in to the final corner but he still goes fourth quickest on a 1:37.769

Big news. McLaren has confirmed that Tooned will return at the Spanish Grand Prix this year...

Sorry, nobody was improving at that point but Alonso has just gone fourth with a 1:37.617

And di Resta is next over the line to do a 1:37.782

One second covers 1st-9th, but there's only 0.3s between Rosberg in third and ninth-placed Grosjean

Kimi fans, fear not, Raikkonen is now out on track

You get some interesting problems over team radio. Van der Garde reports that his only problem is "the steering wheel is too far to the right hand side"

Raikkonen is usually straight on the money with his first lap...

Now that's my best bit of pre-empting yet today. Raikkonen does the fastest first sector of anybody on his first timed lap

Gutierrez spins off at turn 14 coming up behind Massa quickly. He's ruined his tyres but continues

Alonso locks up in to turn 14 and heavily flat-spots a tyre, while Sutil pits with front wing damage

Raikkonen's first timed lap? Second quickest, just 0.068s off the pace with a 1:37.003

Replays show Sutil's front wing failing as he ran over the kerb out of the final corner. It's just the right hand corner, with the endplate looking like it has split in half

Button is back out on track after that puncture, so we assume he's using his FP2 set of hard tyres

Raikkonen with another fastest first sector but he's lost time in the middle sector and doesn't improve

Hamilton on heavy fuel and told his target time is a 1:42.4s

Before flat-spotting his tyre Alonso managed to improve his best time to a 1:37.319, so less than 0.4s covers the top four

Hamilton does a 1m43.2s - 0.8s off the Mercedes target time. Sack him.

Rossco emails in to ask: "So how much do you think Webber's start last week was done to the ECU/ KERS problem? Was it entirely responsible? Or was it one of his typically slow starts down mainly to his technique?"

I think it was almost fully down to the ECU problem. As a result he couldn't get an accurate clutch bite point, and with no KERS he was really hampered in the second phase of the start

Raikkonen returns to the pit lane rather gingerly. Issues at Lotus?

Webber with a 1m42.4s, while Bottas just did a similar time

On board replay with Raikkonen shows he didn't shirt out of sixth gear through turn 14 and then rolled down the back straight to the pits. He's still in his car in the garage, so that's an encouraging sign

Barnard emails in to ask: "Are there any parts that can be replaced on an engine between races, while the engine is still in the mandatory 3 race cycle? Apart from fluids, filters I guess?"

While I believe general maintenance can take place, the main thing to point out is that the engine doesn't have to do three races in a row, just that the team is limited to eight for the whole season. How it uses those eight is up to each team

Shahnawaz asks: "When a team is sand bagging, they use heavy fuel. Doesn't the car respond differently with different fuel on board? How do they co-relate the data to low fuel run?"

It does indeed handle differently, but the teams would get a benchmark. As the team will know what fuel load it has in it can then calculate its predicted low-fuel lap time. These are experienced racers too, so they know how to set a car up for low and high fuel

A funny exchange on the Force India team radio. Sutil is told to "stay of the kerbs" after what happened during his last run, but he responds with "no KERS?" His engineer responds with "No. Kerbs. Kerbs. As in the side of the track"

Vettel says he's picking up vibrations as his front left tyre appears to be struggling

Vettel does a 1m43.5s on those tyres. Hamilton says his rears are destroyed and he's overtaken by Rosberg in to turn one

Hamilton's last last was a 1m48.3s and Rosberg's a 1m44.9s - either Hamilton backed off or the team has pushed the tyres to the end of its life and beyond

Hamilton pits, unsurprisingly

18 drivers on track, and Pic passes Vettel in to turn one after a courteous wave from the world champion

Raikkonen is back out on track and his first lap is a 1m39.5s

Perez radios in to ask "All OK with the rear of the car?" McLaren says it will look in to it

The session is drawing to a close and we haven't seen a green sector time for a while...

Good to see a sense of humour at Force India:

That's it for FP1, with Webber's session ending with a trip to the weighbridge

Di Resta does a 1:38.234 to end his session, so he must have been on low fuel

Raikkonen's final timed lap is a 1:40.3, so that's good pace from Lotus if it had a lot of fuel on board

Vergne stopped at the end of the pit lane and has to be pushed back by his mechanics. The most likely explanation is that he didn't leave the pits before the chequered flag fell so the pit lane light was red

As the cars return to the pits (at safety car speeds) it's time to sign off. Thanks very much for following FP1 with us, keep an eye on ESPNF1.com and we'll be back with full coverage of FP2 at 14:00 local time


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