Lewis Hamilton maintains McLaren form with fastest time in first Sepang session

Lewis Hamilton continued McLaren's strong form by setting the fastest time in the opening free practice session ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

The Briton topped the morning by half a second over world champion Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, with the two Mercedes next up. Melbourne winner Jenson Button was hampered by an oil leak and was back in ninth for McLaren.

Although forecasts of rain later encouraged teams to complete plenty of mileage this morning, it was still half an hour into the session before serious times were set, with Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher leading briefly for Lotus and Mercedes respectively before Hamilton and Vettel began a battle for first place.


A 1m38.598s put the McLaren in front after 34 minutes, but only for two minutes before Vettel beat it by 0.063 seconds.
Hamilton narrowly missed out on reclaimed first place with his next lap, before putting in the 1m38.021s that would keep him ahead for the rest of the session.

Behind Vettel, Nico Rosberg narrowly beat Mercedes team-mate Schumacher to third.
Romain Grosjean took fifth for Lotus despite pitting for checks early on after reporting a strange feeling at the rear of the car.

Mark Webber completed the top six in the second Red Bull, ahead of Raikkonen, with Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg's Force Indias eighth and 10th.

Button managed to complete 15 laps before the issue that left his McLaren parked in the garage for the final part of the session.

Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas made his debut in an official session with 11th place, 0.059s quicker than team-mate Pastor Maldonado.

Ferrari was back in 13th and 15th with Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.

Problems continued for HRT, as Narain Kartikeyan parked on track with gearbox issues after eight laps, and Pedro de la Rosa was 7.5s off the pace at the back of the pack.