Friday First Free Practice - Malaysian GP


Friday October 15th, 1999

Schumacher back with a bang

Michael Schumacher came back to his Marlboro-Ferrari with a bang at the new Sepang circuit in Malaysia this morning when the German lapped the damp but drying track almost a full second ahead of his nearest rivals. He ran 19 trouble-free laps learning the circuit layout, but making little changes to his car on the changing track conditions. The four Ferrari chassis at this race feature revised aerodynamics to cope with the hot weather conditions and are using the 048B development engines raced in the last event.

Eddie Irvine did 17 laps to set the fifth fastest time of the morning, a minor spin in the opening wet laps his only problem.

Sauber's star for Petronas

Jean Alesi and Pedro Diniz set the next best times for the Sauber-Petronas team, both drivers running low fuel and fresh tyres in order to set a quick time to encourage their team and race sponsor, Petronas. Alesi ran wide on one corner damaging the undertray of his car, while Diniz complained of low speed understeer and the difficulty of finding the right line around this wide circuit.

Barrichello well up for Stewart

Rubens Barrichello took the fourth fastest time for the Stewart team, the Brazilian complaining of a minor problem with his car's steering wheel , but he stayed out on the track in order to learn the layout rather than waste time in the pits having it fixed. Johnny Herbert was 11th fastest , troubled throughout the session by out of balance tyres which were causing a bad vibration, a problem which apparently affected a couple of other teams.

Problems for Fisichella

While Benetton's Alex Wurz had nothing more to say after setting sixth fastest time other than the new track's lack of grip, his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella managed only 6 laps after a gearbox problem caused a spin and then an electrical problem caused the engine to stop a couple of corners later.

First crash to Panis

Olivier Panis had the dubious honour of being the first driver to crash an F1 car at the Sepang circuit when he spun off at the end of the straight and badly damaged the rear end of his Prost against the barrier. A possible brake problem was thought to be the reason for his accident, while he started 30 minutes late because of an hydraulic leak.

In brief...

The Jordan and McLaren teams preferred laps to glory this morning, Hill eighth and the two McLarens of Hakkinen and Coulthard ninth and tenth quickest respectively. Frentzen was 12th running 23 laps, more than anyone else.

Luca Badoer got only two laps with his Minardi before an electrical wire on the exhaust pipe caused a fire at the back end of his car. Zonta got only 5 laps in his BAR before an engine failure caused a change. Ralf Schumacher only got in 6 laps with his Williams because of an hydraulic pressure problem. Marc Gene spun and then stalled his Minardi out on the track.

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time                  
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari              1:44.824  190.330 km/h
 2.  Alesi         Sauber Petronas      1:45.687   +  0.863   
 3.  Diniz         Sauber Petronas      1:45.997   +  1.173   
 4.  Barrichello   Stewart Ford         1:46.098   +  1.274   
 5.  Irvine        Ferrari              1:46.152   +  1.328   
 6.  Wurz          Benetton Supertec    1:46.812   +  1.988   
 7.  Panis         Prost Peugeot        1:47.048   +  2.224   
 8.  Hill          Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:47.087   +  2.263   
 9.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes     1:47.186   +  2.362   
10.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes     1:47.273   +  2.449   
11.  Herbert       Stewart Ford         1:47.521   +  2.697   
12.  Frentzen      Jordan Mugen-Honda   1:47.998   +  3.174   
13.  Zanardi       Williams Supertec    1:48.029   +  3.205   
14.  Villeneuve    BAR Supertec         1:48.401   +  3.577   
15.  Trulli        Prost Peugeot        1:49.801   +  4.977   
16.  Takagi        Arrows TWR           1:49.815   +  4.991   
17.  Gene          Minardi Ford         1:51.652   +  6.828   
18.  R.Schumacher  Williams Supertec    1:58.882   + 14.058   
19.  de la Rosa    Arrows TWR           2:01.119   + 16.295   
20.  Zonta         BAR Supertec         2:01.186   + 16.362   
21.  Fisichella    Benetton Supertec    2:03.831   + 19.007   
22.  Badoer        Minardi Ford         8:13.523 + 6:28.699   

All Timing Unofficial


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