Sepang, 21st March 2008

Second and third was the final outcome of the first day of testing for the second race of the season, the Malaysian Grand Prix, for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team, with Felipe Massa finishing just 0.222 seconds ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. And the day's events were watched with his usual keen interest, by Jean Todt, whose recent change of responsibilities at Ferrari has been making all the headlines in recent days. After the unusual park circuit in Melbourne, this is the first time the cars have performed on a "real" track and the wide open spaces, different lines and long corners made a big change for drivers and engineers to deal with. All went well for the "Reds," the only glitch in the day being a misunderstanding within the team which left Kimi parked in his F2008 out on track, without any fuel in the tank. Despite this, Felipe and Kimi, first and second in the morning, racked up a convincing 97 laps over the course of the day.

The honour of topping the time sheets after the two ninety minute sessions went to Australian Grand Prix winner, Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren-Mercedes. Some trends that emerged in the season opener last Sunday showed signs of reconfirmation this weekend. Jenson Button was fourth in what seems to be a rapidly improving Honda, while Sebastian Vettel again showed well, finishing up fifth in the Ferrari-engined Toro Rosso car, while rounding off the top six was the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. As usual in this hot and humid weather, everyone always keeps an eye on the skies. Today, some rain was due to arrive towards the end of the session, but it stayed away. The prospect of a wet qualifying is not something that many people would relish apart maybe from the fans, who would be able to claim they had seen F1 cars performing in the wet without traction control for the very first time.