Massa quickest in practice

Felipe Massa dominated first free practice for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix but team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and rival Lewis Hamilton both seemed to suffer mechanical problems.

The Brazilian was untouchable around the 5.543km Sepang circuit, his time of one minute 35.392 seconds a second faster than the rest of the field.

But Raikkonen saw his Ferrari come to a halt after only eight laps of running, while Hamilton’s McLaren crawled back to the pits towards the end of the 90-minute session.

Hamilton set the first time of note with a lap of 1min 37.265secs only for Massa to comfortably surpass that mark by over six tenths of a second.

Raikkonen then outpaced his team-mate to top the timesheets with an effort of 1:36.459, while Heikki Kovalainen went inside McLaren team-mate Hamilton’s time to lie third.

The wheels literally came off for David Coulthard as his Red Bull ran wide at turn 12 and the front end of his car fell apart after clipping a bump.

Raikkonen then saw his mechanical nightmares of last weekend resurface as his Ferrari slowed to a halt at the same part of the track, bringing out the red flags and halting the session.

Upon resumption, Hamilton bettered his time by nearly two tenths but Massa went even quicker with a lap of 1:36.283.

Kovalainen improved but was still over three tenths behind the Brazilian with Hamilton just one thousandth of a second off his team-mate.

Mark Webber then came to a stop with smoke pouring out of the back of his Red Bull before Massa continued to lower the bar with a time of 1:35.744.

Kovalainen recorded a 1:36.556 but it was not enough to surpass Raikkonen’s early effort, while Hamilton worryingly toured back to the pits with five minutes of the session remaining.

There were no such concerns for Massa, though, as he continued to set a blistering pace and his eventual best was over a second quicker than his stricken team-mate.

Nico Rosberg edged his Williams into fourth ahead of Hamilton as a result of the Brit’s early finish, while Fernando Alonso claimed sixth.

Jenson Button was an encouraging ninth for Honda but Anthony Davidson again struggled down in 21st, his Super Aguri almost five seconds off the pace.