The Malaysian Grand Prix - Practice 1 Formula 1

Hello and welcome to a sweltering Malaysia. The first on track action

will be coming up live in just a few minutes. But here is Allan, to tell

us what we can expect over the weekend. The conditions always amaze

me, Allan. It's not just the temperatures. The humidify as well

makes it feel 0 degrees hotter. The cars feel it, the tyres, the drivers

feel like it. It feels leak you're boiling from the inside out.

Australia was all about the unknown heading into the new era of the

sport. We've come to Malaysia, very different conditions, very different

kir suggest. How many unknowns are there still? There's a lot. I don't

believe they'll actually get on top of all of them until probably

three-quarters fully through the season. The reality is some of the

teams will pick up information and they'll understand a little bit

more. But when they come here, it's a new environment, as you say and

they'll be trying to understand how the car works on this circuit in the

and in this heat. the car works on this circuit in the

and in this Plenty of unknowns in Australia. But on Sunday night in

Australia, the result was even unknown. Daniel Ricciardo put in a

really impressive performance but he ultimately lost that second place.

His Red Bull car was deemed to have breached fuel regulations banked Red

Bull will going to appeal that. But for today, it is Nico Rosberg who

leads the driver's championship. No mention there of Lewis Hamilton.

Williams have more points after one race. Ben Edwards and Tony are in

the commentary box for us this morning. The teams really need all

the track they can get this season? Yes, that's right. Several of the

teams, Lee, last time out in Melbourne, got hardly any running on

the Friday, particularly on the weekend. Lotus had a nightmare of a

weekend there. So they're desperate to get a run in. Caterham had a

tough time as well. Let's not forget that Pirelli have added an extra set

of tyres for this race. Pirelli have the medium and -- and the hard tyres

here, so the teams will need to find out a bit about them. But last time

in Australia, some teams didn't even get out of the garage. How much is

about tyres? As Ben mentioned, they'll have the hard tyre. They'll

run on that for this session generally. I think the reality is

most of the teams will be trying to understand how the cars and the cool

packages are working in this condition. The teams will be trying

to just maximise the track time for that as opposed to tyre development,

which is maybe more this afternoon. 10 days since we were in Australia.

Realistic ale, how much work can be done within that time period to

improve these cars? Well, a lot of teams have done a lot of work. Lotus

has been mentioned. They've been working extremely hard because they

had a lot of troubles. For them, I think just finishing the race will

be be a start. They hope to see the fruits of all of their battles, if

you like. The for the -- for the other teams at the front of the

grid, it is more tweaking, except McLaren. They came with major

updates an they say it saves half a second a lap. We'll have to see.

Alland and I are going to head out oto -- to the lap. You can get in

touch with the hashtag or leave a comment on the BBC sports page.

Local time, just coming up for 10 o'clock in the morning. The air

temperature, 29 degrees. Tram temperature, up to - -track

temperature, up to 38 degrees already. That's partly what puts the

strain on the tyres here. It is also an abrasive surface. We know they've

gone with these harder compounds in this race, the hard and medium. The

green light comes on in the pit lane to indicate that the first session

of the Malaysian Grand Prix are under way. Ferrari are quick to send

their car out. Fernando Alonso, three-time winner of the maugs Grand

Prix is first out on to the track and gives us a view of this track.

Allan, this is track that the drivers generally enjoin. It --

enjoy. It's her man's best creation. It has tight corners. It's really,

from a racing point of view, going to be dictated by the two long

straights. The last straight down into the hairpin and then the start

and finish, because that's the two DRS zones. There's a real balance in

trying to get your car ready, well-balanced with ear dynamic grip,

but then you need to be slippery one those straights when the overtaking

is going to happen. You like me are looking forward to some of the

shots, some of the images we'll be getting here. There are some fast

corners, five and six. There's also that fast chicane towards the end of

the lap, which was generally flat out, but we're wondering if it is

going to be flat out right now. We were talking about that yesterday.

Alonso is coming up to a right-hander. Check the drinks

button. I think he's definitely going to need that today. But this

is a flat out. Normally it was flat out left and right kink. But with

the reduced downforce this year, there is question marks. I

personally don't think it is going to be flat out. We will watch the

onboards to find out over the course of the weekend to see if they are

flat out. Here we are riding with Fernando Alonso as he comes to tend

of the first lap. It is likely he will come back into the pit. Now,

new nose cone on the new front wing on the front of the McMcClaren there

of Jenson Button. We got used to the McClaren looking slightly different

with almost Nos industrials on the front of the cars but now they have

tore ro Rosso or perhaps Force India-looking front of a car. I have

to say it's not quite as attractive as it was. But these fittings are

part of if updates we are seeing from McLaren on the weekend. Jenson

Button was talking about how they've brought nor downforce into the car.

That's the aim now. They have a very drivable car at this stage. He's

been happy with the way the car has been performing through testing.

What they have been lacking is that ultimate downforce, the ultimate

grip through the corners. That is part of the package they've brought

to the car this weekend. So we're seeing the first nose change of the

season. Tony Dobbins is with me. Seasoned writer on all things F1.

Tony, what do you think? I like the way it was before, actually? Yes, I

agree with you there. Anything they think might find a hundredth or two,

they'll go with. So obviously their wind intel is telling them that's

the way to go. Of course, knocked the end of the rose out last time in

Melbourne during one one of the pit stops. Jenson Button straight back

into the pits. We're seeing quite a few cars straight out and straight

back in again. The good news is it looks like -- it looks like most

people are getting an installation lap in early. That's something we

didn't see in Australia and weren't expecting to see either. In the end,

most cars did get out there. It shows you what a couple of weeks can

do. Already we've seen lots of cars come out. That's quite impressive.

It's just Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, the two Red Bulls and the Grosjean

gross, the Lotus, who are yet to come out of the pit. Nico Rosberg

won the first race of the season in Melbourne. Never had a victory here,

but he has done well here. He scored Mercedes' first podium on their

return to F1 in 2010. He has a lot of confidence about driving here.

His grid position was also that season, 2010, when he started in

second place on the grid. Actually led part of the race when he raced

for Williams way back in 2009. So he has no fears with this circuit, no

doubt about it. And what a brilliant start to the championship it was for

him, Tony. OK, Lewis Hamilton wasn't -- wasn't able the fight him an we

didn't get that real confrontation between these two, because they

certainly seem to have the fastest car, but it was the perfect start

for Nico Rosberg. It was and I think we might well see that battle here

because I expect it will be very quick. You know, if Lewis has a

decent, reliable run, you can bet they'll both be at the front an we

might have to see some not team orders but some sensible team

interplay. Yes, well having a look there as the car comes back into the

pits. Of course it was hear last year - the main controversy last

year was about the team orders or lack of them, or Vettel obeying

them. Rosberg was catching Hamilton in the closing stages of the race,

had a faster car, but he was told to hold station. Absolutely. I think

Nico was a bit peeved about that. But he was very mature about it. In

contrast with Red Bull, there was a lot of controversy there. They were

very sensible about it. But you know, you know that Nico wasn't

happy about that and he certainly wouldn't be happy if it happened

this year. No, that's right. This is interesting. He was on the brakes

coming into the pits here and very unstable. It's interesting, he had

to give a big old -- as he came into into the pits. They are standing

hard on the brakes there. But he has already done an intel laigs lam. It

indicates the brake wire system not set up perfectly just yet. Problem

with the car. Yes, locked up the rear, problem with the car. It is

very unusual to see that. Spot on there, Ben. It seems a little bit

unusual, especially when everything seemed to go according to plan last

time out. So let's keep an eye on that and hope that Nico Rosberg

doesn't have any problems. Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean and

Daniel Ricciardo have both gone out and done their installation laps.

We're just waiting for Sebastian Vettel now. McLaren has some of this

tank over that front wick wing. This is an idea to give them an idea of

the wind flow on that front wink. What they're trying to do is get

more air flow underneath and then through the car and then using the

bottom and the diffuser at the back of the car to generate as much

downforce as possible. That's basically what the teams are all

trying to achieve. But they've gone about it in different ways this

year, Tony. We still have quite different nose design. Of course,

Mercedes themselveses have a very low nose. I think that's probably

the most attractive treatment. I'm not a fan of the Ferrari nose, itch

I've got to admit. But that looks very neat. Sebastian Vettel does

come out for his installation lap. The four times world champion

three-time winner here himself, like Alonso. And when he did take that

victory from Mark Webber in fairly controversial circumstances but went

on to dominate the latter part of the season. At that early stage of

the season we didn't really know that Red Bull had that level of

dominance that we were going to see later on. They were struggling with

the tyres at that point of the season if you remember. Vettel was

pushing for every point he could get. Absolutely. When we got to

mid-season it looked like Mercedes was in the ballpark. Then they steam

rolled them. Of course, the news about Red Bull, the stories about

Red Bull, really coming out of Melbourne, is all about Daniel

Ricciardo's exclusion. Yes He drove beautifully, didn't he? Not just in

the race, but in qualifying. The fastest in fall fiing. Brilliant all

weekend. Absolutely. Finishes second to the delight of the home fans. Yes

Then what happens? For me, it was a tragedy, because it was such a feel

good story for F1. Mark Webber is retired from Formula One. You have

in new Australian, smiley star they all took to and loved. He finishes

second. They talk about the future of Australia beyond 2016. Then he's

kicked out. Australia wakes up on Monday morning to the newspapers

which said "Grand Fast, instead of Grand Prix. To me that was a missed

opportunity. You have to regulate the sport. I just wondered whether,

perhaps, it might not have been better on this occasion to have a

chat behind closed doors about, you know, the operation of these fuel

flow meters an not have that start to the season. But I know a lot of

people would disagree with that. I know. Let's quickly explain what it

was all about. Of course, part of the new regulations is that there is

a fuel flow rate of 100kg per hour. Yes That is assessed by a new device

that's fitted to all the cars. It's supplied by an independent

manufacturer, but all the teams have to go out and buy it and fit it to

their cars Yes. That tells the FIA whether you're within the fuel flow

rate or not. That's right. You have a fuel flow limit and fuel fill

limit. In this instance, Red Bull said, the experts said according to

the device they had actually exceeded the fill. We haven't seen

anything in the figures. You hear it in the background. I stress, that

it's not known. It will come out in the appeal on the 14th of April. Red

Bull said the census -- consensus from Friday was inaccurate. So they

went from the data provided by their injectors. Now, the gist of their

defence is going to be that in actual fact, the steward's decision,

which says that they were asked to turn down the fuel flow, was based

on a technical directive which has no regulatory value. It's actually,

they complied with the rules as it's written. That's, I think, is going

to be their defence. It's a very important issue for Formula One.

It's important they get this resolved quickly. Under these new

rules you're going to have situations where people are testing

things, they push the limits. Formula One teams do all the time,

whether it's pushing the limits of the car on the track or, indeed,

with the regulations. And, clearly, Red Bull are looking to do that a

bit. Yes. They feel disgruntled that the device, from their point of

view, didn't deliver what they wanted. Ultimately, the FIA has to

make a ruling and it will be interesting to see how it comes out.

It is. It is almost a test case. It is a good point you make make. They

say they need a result quickly but we'll be three races in by the time

we get the result. What will they do here, what will they do in bar rain?

It's a fascinating issue. Cars have done their installation laps now.

Everybody ec whiching over the various bits of equipment. A few

little bits and pieces on the Marussia team this weekend. Cooling,

of course, is a crucial part of making a car fast here in Malaysia

because of the tie temperatures. Esteban Gutierrez about to leave the

pit lane for Sauber. A difficult start to the season for Sauber. Both

drivers talking yesterday about how the car is actually overweight at

this stage. It would be tough to get these new spec cars down to the

weight limit, even though the weight limit have been increased for this

new season. Very difficult for teams to build a car down to that level

with all the new bits and pieces associated with the hybrid systems

on the car. And the car is definitely overweight. Overkwagth

even with Gutierrez dput in the car, and he's one of the lightest at 61

kilos. There is no chance for Gutierrez's team-mate, is there? We

were talking about that yesterday. He's about 14 kilos heavier. That's

right. There's going to be a -- it's going to be a difficult one for him.

I'm talking rubbish. More than half a second, but even so. Even

three-tenths per kilo, he is over the half a second. Let's get down to

the pits now. Allan is at McLaren. Yes, we're at McLaren. One of the

teams that's made a big updates for this race. Ben as you mentioned

before on the installation lap, it is more of a sweeping noise. I

personally like the visual aspects of it. But this apparently gives

more downforce and obviously a little bit more at the front. Just a

little bit more in their mid corner just to flick it round. Also, they

have some tweaks at the back of the car we haven't quite seen yet. And

the two cars are running different cooling packages. The reason is they

have two different ideas. They want to see what the best solution is. In

two practice runs they're going to try both on both cars and make a

decision afterwards. Beautiful images there. There's the test and

development driver for Sauber. As we see, Gutierrez is out there. I'm

glad to say that we've been joined by another man who is a testing and

development driver for the Formula One team, for the Caterham driving

Team Alexander Rossi. You're racing GP2, you're back into that, and

looking forward to that. Yes, GP2 unfortunately isn't here this

weekend. But we will be in bar rain next week. Just came from the test

in bar rain. But happy to be here. Happy to be at the first Grand Prix

myself this year. A big weekend in terms of Caterham. Of course, Tony

fer nen dez, the Malaysian owner of Caterham. There's always a lot after

attention for Caterham at this Grand Prix. Particular cus errix son,

actually, but, yes, this is our home race. Tony is obviously quite a

prominent figure in Malaysia and Australia didn't really go as we had

hoped. So we're hoping to bounce back here and take advantage of

anything that comes out way. Of course, looking at these front wing

design, the Caterham front wing design has caused a bitter of mirth

in the offseason. It is slightly different to what the other teams

have gone for. Any changes to this? Or will they stick with this system

farce you know at the moment? I think all the teams are going to

bring up this come the European round. What Caterham has come up

with at the moment is a bit of an unknown. But, yes, everyone is

looking to change, improve it, as much as they can before Barcelona.

Onboard with ridiculous -- Christian Eriksen this year. He had a bit of a

baptism of fire with all the issues with these Upower plants and then of

course a sad retirement in the race. He seemed to be going OK in the

Grand Prix but, sadly, one of the non-fin anyone fers. Yes,

absolutely. I think everyone needs to realise that we were able to get

a car in on merit. The fact that both cars didn't finish, obviously

kind of quashed that highlight of the weekend. Having said that, I

think everyone is quite pleased with the way the car is going. If we can

get the reliability out of it, I think we will see a step forward.

One of the heroes sh -- One of the heroes on screen now -- one of the

heroes of Melbourne on screen now. Where the exclucs of Daniel

Ricciardo, he ended up with a fine fifth place finish. That was the

mark of the man. He was beating himself up about not being on the

podium. He was saying had he not done that, he would have been on the

podium. He is the star of the season for sure. If you look at last year,

the one in Canada, and the other one where they took the exhaust off and

he found some time to drive in Texas, he had an excellent race

there. We just saw Felipe Massa, who is the testing and development

driver for Williams. So he is also keeping an eye on things. Another

guy you're racing against, Alex. Let's get a quick update on the

conditions at the moment. Lee. Thanks, Ben. At the moment, it is 39

degrees track temperature. The humidity is around about 60%.

There's no chance of rain for the moment. Before we came on air, Allan

and I went into one of the garages and the temperatures is there is

just colossal. When they're starting up the car, there's so much heat

that radiates from the cars, it's just unbelieven. It's always

interesting to see the drivers run the circuit. That never ceases to

amaze me. I was talking to Kevin Magnussen and he said he went out on

the track at 12 o'clock, the hot test part of the day, just to get

used to the conditions. I don't know if you've run it at all? No, but

I've walked it. That counts. Thank you, Lee. Over the weekend, on our

coverage, Mark Webber will be talking about the demands of racing

under these kind of conditions. Malaysia and Singapore are the two

most difficult, yaelly, in terms of the heat and the huh many I hadty

for the drivers. And Mark Webber will be taking us through how

drivers prepare and some of the testing demands on the bodies from

that point of view. So that will be very interesting. Don't forget you

can get in touch with us by tweeting us using the hashtag or comment on

the Facebook page. Good to have some of your questions an comments

already. Abdul saying should they install speakers at the end of the

car to intimidate last year enjoin signs. This has been one of the big

stories. Thank you, Abdul. Yesterday, when Sebastian Vettel was

asked about the engines, he made a derogatory comment, which sadly, we

cannot repeat. He also said when he fell on the pit wall, he said it was

quite yetter than being in a bar. So he seems very anti-it. But that's

not across the board. Some of the other drivers are quite positive

about it. It's interesting actually. Other drivers say you can hear more

things going on. It hasn't got the ground-shaking violence that, you

know, the old engines had but it's just different. I think it's

something we'll get used to. Alex, kwhaegs your take on the new engine

sound? To be honest, this is the first time I've heard this morning.

I think the tone is fine. It's just the volume is a bit quiet. At the

same time we have this discussion every time there's a massive

regulation change. People don't like the way it looks. Now they don't

like the way it sounds. It was the same issue when we went from the VN

to the V8s. I think people will get used to it. It's one of the things

it will take a good couple of races for people to wrap their heads

around. I quite agree with that. It is all about the quality of the

racing. Of course in GP2, you'll now be louder than Formula One cars.

Yes, I'm very proud of that. Let's talk about that. There was talk over

the winter whether these cars would end up not much quicker than GP2.

But as it turns out, they are still a good chunk faster. The teams are

talking about developing them four seconds faster during the season. So

I don't think there's any problem there. Do you? No, we were just in

bar rain this past week and we were find at a similar pace. But I think

with all the issues everyone was having in Bahrain, I won't be like

that in a week. They still have a solid, three or four seconds on us,

which should be the way, I think. They should be a step up, yes.

Ferrari is one of the most successful taements here in

Malaysia. Michael Schumacher seemed to like this place right from the

very beginning when he came here. Then there was Eddie ir-Irvine.

There was the one in 2012 when they said it was a far worse start than

they'd experienced this season. Yesterday when they were talking

about it, they said they're not going to be despondent, there's

potential in the car. You're right about Ferrari, that fantastic 2001,

when Michael and Reubens both went off and came back on again. They

were in the pan seats. Yeah, Michael certainly adored this place and if

you watch him through five and six, it was fantastic. Alonso is

currently -- currently quickest. It is very early days here. Jenson

Button is third, Felipe Massa is in fourth. A few of you have been

getting in touch and telling us where you're listening. You may be

anywhere round the world, listening to us on Radio 25, who have their

25th anniversary this year. Jason says, "Insomnia is useful when F1

practice is on the other side of the kworld." I hope you can stay with

us, Jason. Kevin says, "The best feeling about rough, unwell and not

sleeping, is watching F1." Great to have your company wherever you are

around the world. Whatever the time is with you, it is 23 minutes past

10 in the morning here in Malaysia. Interestingly enough, caffeine is

one of the things they put in McLaren's drinks for Malaysia.

Really? Yes, I was amazed by that. I thought it was a no-no. But the

caffeine as well as the salts, your proteins, they put the caffeine in

there as well. Alonso goes fic -- quicker again there. Alex, the back

end of that car was moving quite around a lot. Yes, I think here,

even more so in Australia, you are going to see a lot of traction

limitations. We all know how much more torquey these engines are and

how difficult it is to control that. I think as the weekend progresses

that will be reduced but in this practice session, there there'll be

a lot of it, I think. What you call a traction event is what we call

sliding, pretty much, I suppose? Yes, correct. Traction is obviously

when the wheel is straight you're trying to go to power and the wheels

are just spinning. When you have the steering lock again, you try to go

to power in the back and it steps out, I guess. Both are negative. I

would say... Oh, oh, we have a Lotus stopped. Oh, dare. This has become a

bit of a familiar story. We were hoping things were better. It is

Romain Grosjean's car and several marshals have gathered around it

already. They have backed off for a moment because obviously cars are

still going around the track. It has just stopped. There's no dank. It

looks like it's come to a halt somewhere. That's a poor start again

for Lotus. Stopped at turn 10 in fact. So a difficult beginning for

Romain Grosjean. Pastor Maldonado has done one installation lap so

far. But that's so far. Magnussen now is second by the way, just a

moment ago. So McLaren is running second and third with Vergne fourth,

bot Bottas in fifth. Let's go down to Allan. This field is going to be

more representative of lap times than what they were in Melbourne. If

you look down to centre fin of engine cover, there is a cover,

that's something they tested in Bahrain. It is for -- it is for

cooling, trying to get all that hot air out of there. That's more than a

thousand degrees cell use that that thing is working out. Talking about

traction, rare tyres. Definitely this is going to be a traction

limited race. Yes, a couple of hairpins as we were talking about,

the last corner, the penultimate corner as well. Tourn 4 is -- turn 4

is pretty tight. And turn 9 they drop down to about 45 miles per

hour. So several key corners where getting the speed down is crucial.

They're getting a bit of a hammering. Lotus looks like they may

be losing another session. When they're looking at mileage, it is

just what they don't need at the moment, is it? Z no. But they

managed 30 laps in the race in Australia, which is more than they

were bargaining on. So they've got something. It's awful to see that,

really, particularly with a driver like Grosjean, who finished last

season in such an impressive way. We were all hoping he would kick on

from there and become one of the front runners. So it's not happy

days for Romain at the moment. It's tough. He seems to be coping with it

reasonably. He got a bit Eddy, he -- edji, we heard it in Melbourne, a

bit of frustration creeping. He talked bit that yesterday. He said

we had changed things in the car but there was still frustration there.

It was interesting, I was talking to Allan about that -- he was talking

to Allan about that at the end of last season and he said initially he

would get very ooir rate and frustrated on the radio and he'd

come on the radio, all heated up, and saying, "I've got no graec! I've

got no brake." But he's calmed down then. Maybe it's coming back a bit.

Just watching Ross Ross, he has gone third fastest. Hamilton fifth

fastest. We'll just ride with him for a moment. This is turn six. He's

not flat out by my means at this stage. Quick right-hand turn at turn

seven. Turn eight. Then a little short straight down towards turn

nine. Hard on the brakes here and it is an uphill exit as well. Important

to get the traction out of this corner. Just lifting up slightly.

And then over the crest and over this tricky little right-hander,

turn 11. Again it's important to get out of this corner quickly. And then

down through the fast shi chain, turns 12 and 13. As you can see,

he's taking things relatively steady at this point. We were talking about

Romain Grosjean. We've seen him head back towards the pit. We think it's

a battery problem, in fact. That's an interesting one. The energy

recovery controller storage system, the battery system. We did catch up

with Romain Grosjean yesterday. Tom Clarkson caught up with him and

asked him if there were any positives that actually did come out

of Australia. I think there's always positive issues. Once you look at

it, on Sunday, of course, that's not the way we would like to think about

the race, but that's the way we did. And, learn, yeah, we had some more

work to do. We had some work to do on the brakes and the car is a bit

different. So we want to work and I'm very hopeful that Renault have

has done a bit of work and we have done a lot. Of course, nothing is

going to be perfect. But if it can be better than it was last time, we

can move from there, improve and get to a good level of performance.

Well, we've just seen Adrian Sutil have a spin coming into the pit lane

entrance. That's a bit of an unusual one, Alex. Yes, you'd have to hope

that was possibly a brake by wire issue rather than driver error.

That's rare to see --rare to see, especially in a practice session.

Let's explain this. What do we mean by break by wire -- brake by wire?

Because of the energy recovery systems and how active the car needs

to be with harvesting energy on the brakes, there's a brake balance

shift that is quite extreme. It always was the case with just

standard curves we've had the past couple of years. But that was

something you were able to kind of compensate with the driver and there

was a quick shift lever that you could adjust the brake. But this

year with the shifts being so big, it's kind of impossible for the

drivers to change the brakes as much as they would need to for a corner.

What they have had to do is make the rare brakes kind of work in a system

that is talking to the harvesting unit. And so the font brakes --

front brakes work as normal. When you press the paddle, you're

controlling the front brakes as you would. But it's an electronic

rare-braking system. If you don't get that working correctly, it can

cause a lot of issue because the drivers don't get the feel of the

deceleration or the feel of the pedal they've had in the past. It

has caused some issues. But as each day goes by, teams are getting more

and more accustomed to it. In fact, it cause adden issue for Kamui wi in

Melbourne. Initial he thought it was his err or but it turned out to be

the system? Exactly. Because it was the second install lap. When he took

the start, basically the rare brakes were shut off. So when we went to

hit the pedal, he didn't have the deceleration in the rear and he had

to use the brakes. It was very much not his fault and a very unfortunate

way to start the season. Just watching the development driver for

Lotus. While we have a little bit of a pause, we've been through the

first half hour. So teams have used that extra set of tyres that they

get to use for the first 30 minutes of FP1. Now there will be a little

bit of a pause. Let's catch only. Some of -- some of the comments the

drivers made yesterday. We see there is a different front wing on the

McLaren, a different nose section as well. Ron Dennis is talking about a

half second improvement here at Sepang. If that translates, do you

think that will allow you to compete with Mercedes? No. They're at least

a second quicker than us. I hope we get a second out of the car this

weekend, but I doubt it around here. It's a very difficult section in

termings of high speed. We're not quite there on high speed yet. So I

don't think it will be that much. But maybe at the circuits that have

less high-speed corners, we could find a good chunk. But anything is

good right now. It is only two weeks after the last race and if we can

keep bringing improvements every Grand Prix, that's the only way

we're going to get close to Mercedes. So Jenson Button hoping

for good things, but whether they're going to be able to actually do some

damage to what Mercedes have come up with in terms of that performance

package, we'll have to wait and see, Tony. I think they'll be

well-chuffed with half a second race. I think anybody would.

Generally they operate on a prinsof a tenth a race. That's their target.

So half a second, if it really is half a second, that's a good step.

Thanks for your views coming in using the hashtag BBF1 or the BBC

Facebook. Connor thinks Jenson Button will finish ahead of

Magnussen. Alex, you've done Renault 3. 5 and GP3 over the years. How do

you see him as a competitor at the moment? And also, which of those

formulas, how different are they and which one is better for moving up to

Formula One? Right. So I raced with Kevin in 2012 in world series and,

you know, obviously, he's a big talent and that was proven last

week. I think that attend of the day, GP2 is a slightly better

platform just from the standpoint that you're on basically the same

power as the F1 cars. Having said that, Kevin did GP2 and he was still

quite successful. So I think that both are more than a feeder

championship into F1. This guy we're watching on track at the moment,

Daniil Kvyat, he didn't come out of either. I guess if you have the pace

an you have the talent, then you'll figure it out. That's been proven by

the rookies. It seems in the years past people team -- teams have been

cautious with who they put in the cars. This year, it's changed a

little bit. Hopefully it will change in the future where teams can put

the confidence in the young guys. Let's hope so. Allan, I know you

wanted to add some comment about what we were talking about with in

McLaren? Yes, just the fact that coming from half a second. That was

one big development. I don't think they're going to be in a position to

do anything like that. The reality is that the comment that I thought

was important was when Jenson said they were at least one second ahead

when he was talking about Mercedes. Looking at the analysis of the last

year, then I would definitely concur with that. Buzz after the safety car

when Nico Rosberg had to really go flat out, he had that amount of time

in his pocket. Yes, no, it's very interesting. And we'll see how they

get on this weekend. Fernando Alonso -- Fernando Alonso just relaxing at

the moment. He is fastest in this session but sitting at the back of

the Ferrari garage, not planning to come out for a little while,

presumably. A very small difference between himself and Magnussen. A 420

also for Rosberg. That's the top three. Jenson Button is a little

slower. Then Hamilton 42. 6. Daniil Kvyat as we mentioned, very

impressive. Of course, Tony, he became the youngest ever

point-scorer in Formula One as a result of his performance in

Melbourne. Of course, nowadays, we do pay points down to tenth, so you

can't necessarily compare that all through history of Formula One,

because for many years you only got points down to six. But it was still

impressive? It was still an impressive performance. The key

thing with him, every time he got into the car, it almostic loos like

he was born into it. There was no learning phase. He was on it

straightaway. I just think it's been a great start for him. We've had two

cars in the top 10 as well. He is born of this new generation of

drivers. You have to look at him in the same light as Magnussen, Bottas.

Kift Daniil Kvyat, very, very impressive. Melbourne he'd never

been to before, but this is a track that Daniil Kvyat has raced at in

the past. Yes, I think we can anticipate another good, strong

performance from him. Tom Clarkson actually caught up with him

yesterday. Let's see what he had to say about coming to Malaysia. Just

talk us through this coming weekend and whether - have you raced here

before? What are your expectations? The last time I've been here was

four years ago an it was also very, very hot. So I won my first ever

race in single-seaters here so it is quite a particular track for me,

happy memories. While it is a bit different to Formula One, so we have

to do a job from zero now obviously and try to learn as much as we can

during the pre-practice. Do you think the car will be competitive

here? I hope so, definitely. We've been doing good step forwards all

the time, every time we're on the track. I think this time we also

have a chance to do good step forward. There's Romain Grosjean

just explaining, presumably, what stopped on the car, while everybody

trying to work out what happened. Let's get back down to the pit lane.

Allan, I think you're at Mercedes now? Yes, I am. They're changing the

enjoin cover. This new enjoin cover is much wider at the rear. Basically

that is for extra cooling, trying to evacuate that hot air to go out the

back of the car. At the moment, they're just putting the camera

position on in both. So they've done a back-to-back in this session with

both the cars, side by side. If you look right underneath where all the

engineers have sat on the pit wall, underneath they've put a little bit

of dry ice on there, just to keep them a little bit cooler. What about

the driver? Allan, you've raced in many, many hot places around the

world, all sorts of areas of the world through Formula One and

through sports car racing. How does this rate from your point of view?

This is one of the worst, I have to say. It's not the temperature. I'm

Scottish, so therefore, we're not extreme -- exactly acclimatised to

heat from birth. But it's the humidity. You just can't get rid of

it. When you have your helmet on, everything else, you only have a

small area that can sweat that can actually get rid of that

temperature. So you feel like you're boiling from the inside. I remember

the last time when I was here to race, I just got out the car and I

just wanted to pass out. It was the worst #2350e8ing -- feeling I've

had. But, ultimately, the adrenaline keeps you going. It was interesting

to note what you said earlier on, about the McLaren, putting a little

bit of claf pseudoephedrine in there. It is allowed but you don't

want to have too much. Fair enough. Readk some of your comments - thank

you for getting there touch with us - a couple more questions an

comments." Do you think a double points race is positive in a season

where many teams are lernling a new car?" I think many people are

feeling doesn't points last race isn't positive from any point of

view. Although there are some people who do like the idea and perhaps

think that it will add some spice to the enof the season. We'll have to

wait and see. Mark Hill saying, "Who do you think will win this weekend?

Skwots what do you reckon, Tony? I can't see past Mercedes on this one.

I have a feeling it might be Lewis. Lewis looked very confident in his

press hearing yesterday. Felipe Massa on screen at the moment, who

was so unfortunate to be taken out by Kamui Kobayashi. Do you know if

Kamui wi has spoken to Felipe after that race. Because Felipe was very

upset. Yes, as you understand he would be. But he understands these

are now consider r cars and it is something you have to deal with.

They were quite good friends before and I think remain to be. Bottas --

Bottas is currently 10th fastest. We only have one car on track at the

moment. The question is really how good is that Williams car. That's

something that Tom asked Bottas yesterday afternoon. Having seen the

potential of your rifles now, do you think the FW36 is a race winner? Not

yet. . I think Mercedes is too strong, too quick. It is a different

kind of circuit, but I think they are still the main team to beat. We

meet to keep pushing. But also from the back there are many other teams

getting better and better. So we need to keep getting better as well.

How do you race your chances this weekend, because Williams have

always been very strong here at Sepang? Last year I had one of my

better results. I was 11th with a car from last year. Of course, car

is zimpbt, but at the moment the feeling is it should be a - I mean,

at least, as good as Melbourne. So, yeah, it's going to be an exciting

weekend. Hopefully can get another improvement of my so far best result

of my career. Bottas there hoping for many, and hoping for a podium

finish this weekend. By finishing in fifth, Bottas has already doubled

the score that they managed to score throughout the whole offer the 2013

season, which seems remarkable, but that's how poor their 2013 season

was. Everyone hoping that Williams will have a stronger time this year.

A few more of your comments and where you're watching or listening

to us for this first practice." Watching in bed for the weekend,

with a possible broken toe." And great to have all your comments from

wherever you are. In fact, Andrew Hooper in Perth in Australia saying

he remembers the turbos of Renault in the BMW era but no-one complained

about the noise then. But the noise is different then. It is not the

same No, it isn't. We were a lot gruntier, deeper, more violent

altogether. I think that's something to to with the periods where you had

1500 hrp at one stage. Different kinds of engines altogether. Allan

is now at Sauber. What can you see there, Allan? We have a fantastic

view of the steering wheel. You can see the complexity of it. Now, we've

heard that the drivers are having -- drivers are having to work a

tremendous amount more with all of the switches and knobs on there to

maximise getting the time. You will hear the SOC or state of charge and

that's how the hybrid system, which we have to remember has got 10 times

the emergency capacity of last year, and double the horsepower boost, so

it is a significantly more important part of the performance. But each

steering wheel is designed perfectly for each individual driver. They get

the buttons exactly where they want and they have to know just it

absolutely blind, like you do with your computer keyboard. It is a

complicated-looking piece of kit. Alexander Rossi with us. Did you

have a hand in discussing with what does go on the steering wheel of the

car? Yes, absolutely. I think all four drivers sit down and have an

input a little bit into what they're doing. Marcus obviously has the main

input because they're the ones hopefully driving every race this

year. But as Allan said, every driver has different needs, some

prefer rotorries and some prefer the thumb wheels. It is all personal

preference. We see a replay there, the car moving around a lot again,

we see with the Italians, nice to see an F1 car being a bit of a

handful, just watch from the onboard here. Had just been on one of the

buttons on the steering wheel just before that little slide. But is it

a more complicated environment now as a driver? Yes, and no, I think

there's parts of it that you don't do as much in terms of - you don't -

it's all automatic thing. So you're not waiting to get to the corner and

pushing the button every point. From that responsibilitipoint it's

easier, but on the straights it's quite a bit easier, but a lot of the

information or a lot of the things you're changing, you prediscuss, so

it's not you're doing it as a reaction, you're doing baiz you know

you have to do it at this point at every lap. So what are you changing

on the straights? In the previous era, you would have been changing

break balance with that manual brake balance change, but what kind of

things are you changing now. It's still changing the brake balance,

but it's more how the brake by wire technology is working. State of

charge is another thing. And then the cooldown laps or slowdown laps

are much busier, you have what's called sustainable energy which you

can run all the time and then you have un sustainable energy which you

use for your performance laps. That's about a three settle change

-- setting change that you're going from a slowdown lap to a cooldown

lap. In terms of the actual race laps and the qualifying laps it's

very similar. We're watching Kevin Magnussen once again. Fernando

Alonso is fastest from Magnussen second. Rosberg is third, Vergne

fourth, Button fifth, then Hamilton, Gutierrez 8th, followed by Bottas,

Raikkonen is down in 12 at the moment ahead of Massa. Bianchi 14th,

Ericsson, Chilton, no times yet established for Perez in the forz

India, nor for the Lotus of Maldonado and Grosjean. We know

Grosjean is out of this. There's a good lap from Ross sow, but the

others who have not set a lap time are yet the two Red Bulls, Daniel

Ricciardo but Sebastian Vettel, but Daniel Ricciardo has just gone out

on circuit, so we may see some flying laps from Daniel Ricciardo.

The man who was excluded last time, the brilliant second place on the

road. And Tom asked him yesterday how did he react to the news of his

disqualification? Oom, my God. Bliemy, strewth.

Crikey. It was - not one of those things too good to be true, but it

was - yeah. A bit of a bummer. I was like, does this really have to

happen now? Obviously such a high from the weekend, everything worked,

you know, nearly perfectly qualifying in the race, you know, I

don't think we're ever going to touch the Mercedes. I think we did

the best we could and then that was - it was a bit of a Downer, but, at

the same time, I was just happy that I put in a good weekend. I put in

the quality and a race, the front row start was - was already, wasn't

the best get-away off the line, but I recovered that in turn one, and I

did all I could. In any case I was still pleased with the results. Just

watching a replay of Jean-Eric Vergne, that little lockup down at

nine, but Daniel Ricciardo was a great performance from him and he'll

be hoping to try to repeat it here in Malaysia. Let's quickly get back

to the pits because Lee is with test and development driver, we saw him

on the screen a few moments ago for Williams, Felipe Massa. Yes, Filipe,

this is much more Brazilian, what is going on in your car. The

temperature is so hot. We see Felipe Massa putting his helmet on. It's

really warm. I have to say, more than in my country, but, you know, I

mean, few changes, I think they're going for a second run now, and just

comparing the two cars. They have - they're trying different things in

both cars. So we'll see. But, you know, naturally the heat is going to

be the main thing in Malaysia, of tyre degradation. I'm sure there are

things looking to minimise the loss on that. So we'll see. But so far

been pretty good for us. How is your role going with the Williams F1

team. It's going really well for me. With such a big opportunity to step

up in my career and to experience this new world in in Formula One,

everything is new for me, and I'm learning as much as I can, and I'm

really looking forward to the - to the times that I'll be in the car.

So which will be next week in Bahrain. OK, hope it goes great.

He's going to have an opportunity in first practice in Bahrain, that's

good to hear. And Felipe Massa will be racing against... He is doing GP2

again this year? Yes, correct. He's going to have a busy weekend that

one. What about yourself, any chances you're going to see you out

in any of the practice sessions that we know about? To be honest, I don't

know. It's a race by race situation, and to be honest, the main focus is

definitely GP2 this year. Fair enough. OK. We'll just hearing this

Max Chilton has got an electrical problem. He's not doing much

running. He has done eight laps so far in this session, currently 17th

fastest as we watch Sebastian Vettel and just seeing also we have that

spinner earlier. Yeah, that was Marcus Ericsson who had the spin as

well earlier. But otherwise no other problems. So Magnussen, he's now

fastest in this session. He's gone ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne. 41. 2,

and there's Kimi Raikkonen just having a little bit of a slide as

well. Getting out of shape. Kimi was talking yesterday - let's see what

happened to Marcus Ericsson. This was down the last corner. Lost the

left front and around came the back. Again, is that something perhaps the

brake wire bar not giving him what he needs there? Potentially. That

back corner has always been quite prone to the inside wheel lockups in

the past. You'd imagine that it is something to to do with the bricking

system. Do you think that's the new favourite excuse of all racing

drivers in Formula One? Yes, definitely, provides a good one,

doesn't it? And - but to be fair, I mean most of the issues have been

caused by that. And still early days as you say. Kimi Raikkonen had a bit

of a tough time in Melbourne. Certainly was a little bit off the

pace of Fernando Alonso generally through practice hand in the race

itself. And clearly wants to see a few differences on the car. He was

talking yesterday about the fact that the car is not quite giving him

what he wants or needs. And that's something that he's looking for some

new parts to be delivered on that score. Right now, he's on track. So

let's just watch the remainder of this lap. Listen in to the radio as

well: Lots of cars looking like they're struggling with rear-end

grip. That's actually to Lewis Hamilton. So, yes, plenty of cars

perhaps struggling with traction off the rear of the cars. Kimi Raikkonen

now turn 9, looking a - looking piecemeal through the corner, isn't

it, Tony? It is. I was talking to somebody who was watching the cars

in Melbourne, it said it didn't look like Kimi. Alonso was attacking,

Kimi didn't have a front bend basically. There was some, you know,

some comments I think attributed to him on Ferrari's website, he said

yesterday, so it wasn't that, it was basic set up and just hasn't got the

car the way he wants it. Tom talked to him yesterday to ask him what he

is looking for on that Ferrari. Let's hear what he had to say. What

bits of the car are holding you back? Just a feeling. The front bend

is a bit tricky. So we'll see. It's the big way of driving around the

corner. Hopefully once we get the new - after a few races, we are in a

better position. We cannot promise anything, but that's the plan, and

that's what I feel will help us. Well, in the meantime, Kevin

Magnussen has just stopped at the side of the track, just on the way

in to the pit. So hopefully might be able to get him back, but Magnussen

just stopping out on track, and let's listen. I lost power. I

switched the engine off. He's been given a bit of a shove and just

rolling around the edge of the corner into the pit lane at the

moment. Let's hope he can make it all the way back they can get to

work on it. He's fastest in this session currently, but obviously

still little glitches are going to occur. That's something we can

expect to see as we go through these next few races before the teams get

their heads around how to look after these powerful units and solve all

the problems that might occur. Just crawling along at the moment. I

think he's trying to wiggle the steering wheel almost to give him

some rolling momentum, but it's not happening for him. Magnussen fastest

from Vergne, Raikkonen third fastest now. So despite the car looking a

little bit of a handful, Raikkonen going third. Alonso third, Rosberg

fifth. Magnussen has stopped now. So looks as though few guys are running

up to try to give him a push. Some of the Marshalls there will

hopefully get him a bit further down the pit lane. Sebastian Vettel, by

the way, has now down a timed lap. He's done a 143. 1, but Vettel is

currently 13th fastest. Let's go back down to the pits at Force

India. Thanks. I was about to say that it's not been a good morning

for Force India. They have managed to get Nico Hulkenberg on track, but

as you can see, Sergio Perez's car is very much a work-in-progress. The

official line is the down time for some checks on the car. Although

somebody told me they haven't pinpointed the problem is and won't

get back out in the session with Perez per. It looks like a surgical

operation going on. Yes, one of the me cans said the fuel tanks -

suggests, sorry, one of the mechanics has got one of his hands

inside the fuel tank, to suggests he has got a fuel surge issue. There's

a lot of fast corners around here, and the fuel, one side of the tank

to the other, he doesn't necessarily pick up all of the time if you do

have something. There's two fuel pumps, so therefore they're on the

inside to see if it is a visual thing. This does take a long time

when you have got, like you say, a surgical mission going on. Yes,

Sergio Perez has been - not looking particularly happy. Not wanted to

speak to us, put it that way. That's why we haven't got any comments from

him. A bit of a hard start for the reason for Sergio Perez, but he did

get that final point in the end in Melbourne after the exclusion of

Ricciardo, so at least he came away with something. He has got a good

finishing record. Go back to the end of 2012 since Perez officially

didn't finish a race. Even though silver ston last year he was a

nonruner. We're watching Kimi Raikkonen. A bit smoother. Third

fastest in this session currently. Yes, he goes fastest. 1 minute 40.

8. Good luck for him. We're saying this is a good track for Ferrari

historically. I wonder if we're going to see that type of

performance. We got a spin on the ner Ferrari. Alonso spinning

backwards, that's not a sight you see often. He hasn't stalled the

engine, but Fernando Alonso, that's down at turn eight. He's back on

track once again. I was about to say, they both have very good

records here with Alonso with his three victories, he took his first

ever poll position at F1 at this circuit, and interestingly,

Raikkonen took his first ever victory at this track. But, Alex,

let's see what Alonso did here. Talk me through it a bit. At the air

base, he lost the car, possibly a bit too much entry speed, but, you

know, I mean, very small error that didn't really seem to cost him that

much. He wasn't locked up for too long, the tyres should be OK.

Hopefully not the case. A lot less rear downforce on these cars because

we have lost the exhaust blowing effect. We have always lost a wing

at the rear which was providing a lot of the downforce and does seem

to have made quite a big difference, hasn't it? Yes, coupled that with

the extra torque, that's on demand basically, makes the rear of the car

very tricky, but at the same time, I mean, F1 cars in the past have

always developed it in - I think by the middle of the year, that will be

settled down quite a lot. Meanwhile, Hamilton has gone fastest, he's on a

quicker lap again as we can see from the split times. Rosberg is taking

things fairly steady. Watching Lewis Hamilton here, he's on a quick lap.

You can see the body of the language, he goes through that 12,

13 sequence of the quar. Changes direction nicely. Little bit of tyre

smoke, that was interesting. He's pushing quite hard. But it almost

seems the level of grip on the track is quite low this morning. You see a

lot of break lockup than normal, and I think some of -- some of that

comes down to track conditions. Let's see what the lap is going to

be. He's gone fastest than anybody in the middle. It's 1. 40. 6. Gains

another tenth or two a second. A useful little improvement. Looking

back on the session one time from last year, Mark Webber was fastest

in session one last year on 1. 36. 9. So we're about four - a little

bit under four seconds at this stage. Similar gap to what we saw in

Melbourne and was a right front that he lost, yes, going down to turn 14

on that lap. And a few more of your comments coming in using the

hashtag. Philipa asking, do you think we have to wait for the

Spanish Grand Prix before we see a reliable Lotus car? I have to tell

you that Grosjean, as we know is out of this session already. And

Maldonado has not gone back out. So Tony, she could be right, it might

be Spain. They'll probably take that if you offered them Spain. Yes. We

certainly like to see them get reliable before that. But who knows.

Jason asked: Withless likelihood with a safety car is there likely to

be an issue with fuel in Malaysia? Now, Melbourne was one of the

toughest on fuel consumption, Malaysia, not quite as tough as some

of the other circuits, Alex? Yes, that is true. Fuel consumption isn't

going to be a massive worry, the bigger worry is the heat and the

amount of time you're at full throttle on this lap when you

compare it to Melbourne, it's about 15 to 20% more full tloten usage,

with the reliability as it is, it is quite a challenge. Let's get down to

the pit lane. Romain Grosjean. Can you tell us what happened? We drain

out the battery with a problem on the MUH, I think. We can fully

recharge and go for a few laps. Certainly would be. And what's your

expectations for this weekend? I know the Lotus team has worked so

hard since the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago. We did. So far it's

not very successful. Of course, we would like to get points, but first

we have to access where -- assess where our car is and how we run it.

Do you think the chassis is a good chassis, but the technical problems

are holding you back. We never get manage to have a good place to see

how the tyres are behaving, but I'm hoping yes. I hope sow, Romain.

Thanks, Alan, Nico Hulkenberg heading into the pit.. Hulkenberg

also had a bit of lockup as you can see down in turn 9, again in the a

major factor. We see the onboard view, the left front locking, with

the orange side wall markings. We'll see the medium tyre come out later

on today. That will be shown in the second practice session. We'll get a

little bit more of a comparison between the two different tyre types

and the idea of the lap time difference between them. Probably

over a second, we'll have so see how they stand up to the treatment

around here as well on this abrasive surface in these high temperatures.

Thanks for your comments. We have been discussing the new look and the

sound of F1 this season. Daniel saying: I think the 2014 season will

get more and more interesting as teams become better adjusted to

their cars. I think you're right there, Daniel. Teams like Lotus, of

course they will be showing their form once they get some reliability.

Going to be interesting to see how that having the order settles down

the next couple of races. Neil comments also: Early stages for the

new F1 guys, give them a chance. Let's go Mercedes. He likes the fact

that it's been shuffled up, Tony. I think that's the key point. It gets

not deedus but when you got same old story for four years, you bring in

new rules, it's what F1 should be about you do change the order up,

and it's interesting, isn't it, when you have got Vettel on the back foot

a little bit. It's a good story. And Mercedes have also done a fantastic

job over the winter, and they deserve to be having the success we

saw in Australia. Just mentioning Vettel as you said, he is currently

7th fastest, been a bit of an improvement in this session from

him. So that will give him a bit of confidence. Ricciardo is currently

11th. Yes, going back to the sound issue, I think we also got to

remember comparing with the 80s turbos, we're actually recovering

energy now, not throwing all the energy out of the exhaust. So not

going to sound as loud. Felipe Massa, that's the same area that

Alonso went. Yes. Just watch it on the onboard now. Got a quick turn-in

here. A bit wide. So, it came, I think, a bit late on turning. Again

he recovers it well. The engine doesn't stall, and he manages to

continue around the lap. So both Bottas and Massa are currently on

circuit. Jim, you have been tell it is us how you have been following

practice this morning. Are you managing to stay awake if you're in

the UK. Rachel says she's on the Sofia with a cup of tea. Gary says

he's in the US catching up on the web listening to us during this

session. Sorry, just trying to pick up the - what he was saying here. He

says he's listening to America's -- American's driving around in

circles, worst than turbo noise, he says. We have got Americans here.

Gary, I'm glad you're listening to. Zach Des: F1 time after a week of

exams, he says it's nice to relax. March rare says, making finish

course work more bearable. James: Watching while finishing an essay

off. Bottas just finishing his lap. He's still 10th fastest there. Craig

watching from Scotland, near 3am, lecture for university at 9am, do

you think they'll allow Formula One and an absence -- as an absence

excuse. I'll have to go to Alan for the question. It's a university of

Scotland, is he going to get away with it? I didn't hear you there. I

was listening to a McLaren coming blasting in. And the V6 deafened out

our voice. It's Craig from Scotland saying whether he'll get away with

F1 for an excuse for missing his lecture at university. I got away

from a lot of secondary college doing the same thing. Didn't do you

any harm, did it? Our reigning world endurance cham there. Reporting from

the pit lane says. Now, Kevin Magnussen's car did make it back to

the pits. We saw that a little while ago. For some reason it was limping,

but they did get it back. Magnussen's point of view, he will

be coming back out in the remaining part of this session. Only 22

minutes to go. Seems to be rushing buy this first 90 minutes here in

Malaysia. We're watching Jules Bianchi on circuit, he's currently

16th fastest. He's done a 17. 44. 3. What about the usual battle between

March rue sha or Caterham. March rue sha -- March rush sha

Kamui Kobayashi is in trouble. Yes, I know they had an issue with the

car and had to take the floor off. He'll be out. That's a great shame

to here. So again this - it's chesting isn't it, Lotus and

Caterham seems to be going through a tough time. Yet Caterham testing,

certainly I -- Caterham got more miles from Renault than anybody else

on that particular test. Absolutely, I think it's just - a new problems

cropping up. They're not having the same issues. So many different

things going on, if you think there's 500 potential problems you

can have, there's all 510 and they're just discovering those 10, I

think. A hard start for the season for Caterham. Maldonado has gone

out. Ferrari in the pit lane. Hamilton is now fastest for

Mercedes. Ferrari though up there of Raikkonen in second. Rosberg for

Mercedes in third, Button and Magnussen for McLaren fourth and

fifth. So it's Mercedes versus Ferrari. The first of the Renault

power units is actually Vergne, in sixth ahead of Vettel. So tore

re-Ross sow ahead of Red Bull. Daniil out in 14th. Rosso with the

Renault power unit. Ninth for Hulkenberg. And we have to keep

reminding ourselves that Williams with Mercedes power this a year,

they switched again from Renault, and Williams, speaking of that,

since Melbourne, something they really looked at and studied in

detail. Looked at both what engine manufacturers were likely to provide

and made the decision to go to Mercedes. Certainly seems to be a

good decision. Maldonado on circuit going quite slowly. This unique twin

tusk approach to the new regulations regarding the nose cone of the front

wing set up. Different look to the Lotus. But as Romain Grosjean was

telling Alan, we haven't really had a chance to see how this car can

perform. There's smoke out of the back of it. He's going slowly. A

puff of smoke there and things don't look great, do they? No, not at all.

No. It's quite ta bit of smoke now. Yeah. Trying to get that back to pit

lane. I hope that's not an issue on the engine. Well, you have to say

that is looking very worrying. That looks like an oil - or ring failure,

like an old-fashioned engine failure. Very much a blue tinge to

the smoke, isn't it? That's not a good sign. He's limping along, and

he's puffing. And is not good. Not a good look at all with blue smoke

coming out of the back of the Lotus. Let's listen. Stop the car, stop the

car. Stop the car, please. Switch off. Oh dear, oh dear. I don't this

the Lotus boys are going to get much sleep again. Grosjean stopping

earlier, although he did say to Alan he might get back out, but that

looks much more worrying. Might be a turbo problem, or certainly looks

more of the mechanical problem than an ERS or NGUH problem. Yes,

definitely. Well, Tony, it looks like more... Like you said more

overnight work for those guys. They didn't have a happy time in

Melbourne. One time they left the circuit 6am. Got back to the hotel

and then the two seat er got back out. Not good. Trickling into the

pit lane at the moment. Pastor Maldonado who moved from Williams to

Lotus over the offseason of course, and I wonder what he's thinking

about that right now. Like the different performances from the two.

We saw Kevin Magnussen stop a little bit - a little while ago. And

obviously had some sort of problem. Let's see if we can find tout more.

Lee is with Jonathan Neil. I heard the technical term was that Kevin's

car went into lump home move. It's not the best description. These cars

are - have a number of safety features on and complex things to

protect the engine if something goes on. We had a sense that the back of

the car was getting hot and it triggered a mode that powered down

the engine. It's not a major problem for us. Kevin thought he could coast

into the pit lane and judged that wrong. We stopped about how many

feet short of the entry. So we did the walk of shame to recover the

car. It's fine. Carry on the rest of the morning. I think it's very early

to tell. I mean, humidity has dropped. Temperature has dropped.

This weekend is a big test for us all. Up and down the pit lane. In

particular for cooling of these engines, it's going to get this

afternoon. And with these turbo-charged engines, we have to be

careful about inducing a knock in the engine. They get hot. So it's

too early to say that we're comfortable. We'll see thimp. Long

days here for the guys working so hard, and Lotus is having problems

with both cars. Probably going to be a long night for them. How much - we

always focus on the drivers, bru these guys in the team, the garage

is so hot. It is, but I think for the last two or three years now,

there has been a real effort in the pain lane. Being kind, shall we say,

to the mechanics, maybe five years ago. If you look at the general

level of attention to hydration, pos chur, manual handling, all that kind

of stuff. Just the body mass index of the pit lane has changed

enormously in five years. So it's - they have to be athletic, to do pit

stops in the kind of times they're doing, everyone has to be fit, awake

and alert. But it's demanding, but there are worst things to do in

life. So there's no moaning from anybody behind me. Very hot at the

moment. We normally have these conversations when it's pouring in

rain. Normally you stop me when the wheels has gone off, so it makes a

change talking to you when things are going reasonably well. Jonathan

Neil, good to see him here. A lot of his work been based back at the

factory as well. But he was in chatting away with Eric earlier. I

saw, Tony, it's interesting - this new management structure at the top

of McLaren, Jonathon Neil and Eric very much a part of that. There

might be somebody else who comes this to take that role from

Jonathan. That's something they announced and has been quite a lot

of speculation who that might be. Obviously Ross, one of the names

mentioned, for the moment he says he's quite happy on a boat with his

fishing rod. But have to see what happens. There is a vacancy there at

the high managerial level. I was actually quite surprised when Eric

went there because I thought that is kind of McLaren boy deal with

things. They deal with things within. That's indicative of them

identifying... I really struggle... He struggled to stay on the track, I

the think -- I think he said. Struggling then, Daniil Kvyat down

to 14th place. He's done a few laps on those tyres of course. He's done

some 15 laps. Final quarter of an hour of this first practice session

now. Hulkenberg 8th. That's an improvement. Nico Hulkenberg slight

improvement in time. 8th fastest. We know there are problems with Sergio

Perez, we're in the expecting him to be back out. Lewis Hamilton has come

back out on circuit. Currently fastest on 1. 40. 6, fastest than

Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, and Nico Rosberg. Fernando Alonso also out on

circuit. Let's get a bit of a bearing on the relative performance

of these cars. Alonso has done 13 laps so far exactly the same number

of laps as Hamilton, but actually Alonso straight back in. Alan, what

have you got on Daniil Kvyat. Nothing really on him, but more the

case of the comment. His comment when he said that it was undrivable.

That usually means that the rear of the car is very unstable and that's

a particular picture of this circuit. Because quite a lot of very

fast entry car corners and ones that are quite long, and if you're

braking and down shifts, for example, the second last corner on

the big back straight, the rear and stability, really makes it quite

stricte -- tricky and the driver loses confidence. He had a fantastic

run in Melbourne, but he's still very young and early in his F1

career and confidence is going to be a key thing for him. He'll need to

get that rear stablised before the race. Yes, that's right. Beear --

we're just looking in the Red Bull garage at the moment. Sebastian

Vettel, he's done nine laps in this session. But with only 12.5 minutes

to go, I wonder if he's going to come back out again. 12th fastest

for Ricciardo, not quite the sort of pace that we were seeing in

Melbourne. Might be a bit more of a vugle here for them. Yefr, be

interesting to see what happens, because he was sensational as we

said earlier, in Melbourne all the way through. And this is probably,

you know, a better barometer in terms of performance levels. So be

interesting to see what happens. I would expect him to go forward from

where they are now. Ricciardo on circuit. We'll keep an eye on him

and see if he manages to improve on his current times. He's 12th fastest

as I mentioned. Quick note that sue till down -- Sutil town in 13th

place. Bianchi still ahead in the ma rush Kobayashi with problems on his

car, and Perez also unable to come back out. Maldonado and Grosjean

both also with troubles with their cars. Hope they can get them back

out for later on for the second practice session. I do hope that

many of you will be able to join us, but I'm sure many of you will also

have to get some sleep. Ricciardo just done a 145. 231 on that lap. A

little slower than his previous best. Few of your final comments

that have come in using the hashtag BBC F1. How much sleep, says evan,

do the drives get before the race on Saturday night? He says I'm watching

on my laptop in bed at the moment. So sleep is very much in the mind.

Alex, in terms of preparing for the race, do drivers - it's difficult

when you're moving time zones all the time. How do you adapt and do

you expect to get a really good full-night sleep before a race? Yes,

I think you make sure that that happens, but almost, it's imperative

that you don't oversleep, you don't want to wake up in the morning

feeling tired. I think most guys around seven to nine hours and

anything more than that is a bit too much. You want to get a full night

sleep, but don't want to be sleeping for 1 hours, come the right time

you'll be a bit groggy still. Alonso back in the pit. Amy says: Boyfriend

and I are in bed watching in the UK. She says I miss the old engine

sound. Boyfriend loves the new sound. Got a split with one

relationship. I went into my local butchers the other day, and I said

what do you think. Exactly the Dame - one of them likes it, one of them

dislikes it. It's a matter of personal preference. Some people,

the noises is the be-all and end-all, other people doesn't

matter. I don't think it matters that much. It's the racing that

counts, as I said earlier. I agree. If they're overtaking each other and

getting some dramatic racing, that's what counts. Raikkonen about to

whisle his way out. Watch him out of the pits. No, we don't get to watch

the actual practice start. We look at a replay of him on the track a

moment ago. And this is one of the superslow-mo cameras here in

Malaysia. Get some interesting shots as we get through the second part of

practice today. Thomas finally making the comment that he's

watching "on my Sofia in Dorset 30 miles from Jenson's home town."

Thank you for that Thomas. On the subject of Jenson, we ought to

stress we're talking about Kevin Magnussen's debut, and it was, but I

think Jenson, his race in Melbourne was affected by that - the key two

lap that he didn't get because of the yellow plag and all the way

through. That dictated what happened in the race for him. So the jury is

out as to whether we should expect Kevin to be here or not. He was a

little bit lucky where he was with the safety car was announced, but he

had the awareness and so did the team to get him in. I think they

made three places by that clever call. The fact that Kevin, Jenson

came from so far back and finished effectively one spot behind Kevin

was a really good effort. I think here it will be very close. Well, we

know that Magnussen has that little problem earlier, but right now, he's

still in the pits. But as we heard from Jonathan Neil, it's not a major

trouble. Perez, they're still maybe hoping they can get his car back out

on circuit despite the problems from earlier. Getting the body work,

should be going on to the car fairly soon. We'll see if Perez does make

it out just at the end of the session. Just under eight minutes to

go in the first practice session from Malaysia and currently being

topped by Lewis Hamilton, who put it on poll position in Melbourne, but

then of course suffered an engine problem. Interestingly that engine

is the one they're using here today. It was such a minor problem, but

when they fixed it, they felt it was - it should be happy to run, so they

decided to run it today. Didn't want to go to another engine with its

limitation on the number of power units you get through the year, you

don't want to waist any mileage if you can avoid it, and Hamilton

certainly doesn't seem to be suffering any on-going problems with

that power unit because he is fastest. Raikkonen is second for

Ferrari, that's a bit of a boost for the team. And if you look tat the

actual performance levels over the Melbourne race weekend, and look at

the fasest laps during the weekend, interestingly, Ferrari emerged as

the second best team, if you just look across the whole weekend in

terms of fastest laps, well, they didn't seem to be able to do in the

race, Ferrari, was consistently lap at a fast pace. But there was no

denying that they had some pace there, Tony. So there is some

promise at Ferrari. I think they didn't find overtaking easy, did

they? I think the VRS problems on one of the cars. So it's - it's

early days and I think it's - if they're lacking straight-line speed

and overtaking, they're going to be find out here. Yes, true, but I

think if - if anybody can get a good performance out of those cars, it's

both their drivers here this weekend, Raikkonen and Alonso with,

as I say, tremendous records here. Both have delivered superb results.

That's a bit more encouraging. Lotus back out and back in again with no

problems. Romain Grosjean, so the car that stopped out on track

earlier on has been able to go out there. There we are at Force India.

Have they put the body work on yet? Some bits are on yet. So clearly

they're trying to get it ready and you can see Perez in the background

beginning to put his overalls on, so there is maybe a chance that he's

going to get a lap in before the end of this session. So fingers crossed

for the Force India boys they can get him back out. There is the other

car of Nico Hulkenberg, and once again an impressive performance from

Hulkenberg last time out. Finished in sixth place. You mentioned Alonso

struggled to overtake, so Hulkenberg proving he's never a pushover, is

he? No, he's one of these new generation drivers, a future star,

just waiting the opportunity to be able to prove it. Well, let's see

what heck do here this weekend. Pretty good record of scoring points

on this Malaysia circuit, in fact, qualified fifth here when he drove

for Williams back in 2010. Best finish was actually last year when

he was was wa Sauber and finished in #th position but was ninth for Force

India in 2012 as well. Let's get some more news on -- news in the pit

lane. Interesting, because Daniel Ricciardo and the Red Bull just came

in, he stopped - simulated the time of what a pit stop should be

normally be, and then went back out and so, therefore, they must be

quite ahead of their programme because they're thinking about right

now about the race scenario, what is the temperature going to do when you

sit from for the five seconds before they start off. So, I have to say

that Red Bull must be in a reasonable position with the

reliability right now. That's encouraging. As we said, Vettel is

currently 7th and Ricciardo 12th now in this session. So not showing a

great turn of speed, but often on a Friday morning, we don't see the

relative performance of the teams that clearly. Mind you, we are

seeing that Hamilton is fastest and there's no great surprise there.

We're expecting Mercedes once again to kind of be the pace setters. Yes,

interestingly, if Nico was to win here, he'd equal the number of wins

by his father. Five races. He says these things don't matter with him,

but I'm sure he'll be happy to have another one. There's a few records

to be matched or broken. Button heading around the final corner.

Lewis Hamilton has the chance of matching the all British record for

poll positions. That's been held by Jim Clark for a long time. 33. Yes,

since 1968 and could be matched this weekend. I did ask Lewis yesterday

whether matching man sell's -- Mansell's record mattered to him. He

said, the numbers don't really mean that much, what matters is getting

out there and having some success. I think that British record of Jim

Clark's, which has stood for a long time, going to be a meaningful thing

if he matches it and then goes on to break it. He had such few starts in

those days. Jim Clark's record was extraordinary. Yes. Usually about 10

races a season at that time. Yes. And now we have got virtually 20

reasons -- races a season. Yes. The opportunity of scoring a poll

position much higher. This year we have a poll position trophy to think

about as well. That's right. But that's something we got to think

about as we go through the year. I would unite think Mercedes Mercedes

driver would claim that. Yes. Not many odds on others. Alex, only a

couple of minutes left on this session. Give us your thoughts on

what we have been seeing here? Pretty much what you expected? What

about performance of Ferrari, is that something to be encouraged by?

I think, as you said in Australia, that there were actually quite

stronk and you would expect Ferrari to be, you know - they made it very

clear, they have a point to prove this year. I think they have more

than enough capabilities to do that. And as you say, Kimi and Fernando

are doing the best in that car. It's interesting to see Red Bull seem so

relaxed. So I think that they probably have something. Vettel did

only nine laps and he's only 9/10th off. So I think that they are still

kind of someone to pay both attention to. And 17 laps for

Ricciardo, so that's quite encouraging. Massa, a good speed

trap figure, one of the fastest speed trap figures. And a squeal, if

you were listening to that on radio, that was Kimi Raikkonen locking up

the left front. That's the kind of noise we do get to hear right now.

They hear it for the first time, the drivers. Yeah, it's good. Yeah.

Raikkonen just completing another lap here. As the clock continues to

Towards end of this first session. Raikkonen currently second fastest

on that 1 minute 14. 843 just a 10th or so off the pace set by Lewis

Hamilton earlier on. Going back to the speed... Lewis Hamilton through

the travel trap. I think he's going to be OK. Yeah. But that's

interesting. We haven't seen the build-up to that, but we certainly

picked up Hamilton as he flew through the gravel trap. Fairly

unusual place, the exit of turn 11 there where he went off. Yeah. Will

be interesting to see. Power-related issue. We're going to get a view

now. A bit of a lockup into turn 9, runs wide. Lost on entry here. OK.

Through 10. Let's see what happens here. He's on the curve. Oh, dear.

Wow! So I guess he shouldn't use that entry. Stay off the curve.

Whether he was distracted and working out something else or

talking to the team, I don't know, that was an unusual little slipup

from Lewis Hamilton. What I was saying about speeds, when we looked

out of the commentary box window in Melbourne, it was visibly quicker.

Even if they're not as noisy, that's got to be significant. We're talking

about 200 miles an hour. 320 or something like that. That's right.

We're seeing speed trap figures of 315kph. So about 195, 196 miles an

hour. So, yeah, the top speeds are a little bit higher, haul though

they're cornering speeds are lower with the loss of downforce this

year. So the chequered flag is out on this session. And a few cars just

to finish off their laps. 11 cars currently on track, in fact. Quite a

few cars out just at the end. I don't think that Perez did manage to

get back out sadly in the Force India. We did see Romain Grosjean,

of course, do a lap. So good for the Lotus boys to see him back on

circuit. Nico Rosberg, he's currently just finishing off a lap

as well. But we here not expecting to see any improvement. Looks like

Lewis Hamilton will finish this first session with the fastest time

ahead of the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. Going marbles out there,

very slippery. A bit wide. Interesting, Hamilton saying it's

like driving on marbles out there, very slippery. We saw it run wide.

So clearly track conditions are not that easy. Track temperature of some

48 degrees at the moment by the way. So Hamilton, Raikkonen, Rosberg,

then Button, and then Magnussen, Vettel 7th. Hulkenberg 8th, Massa

and Bottas in the top 10. Both Williams in the top 10 ahead of

Alonso. Ricciardo was 12th, and Kvyat, Gutierrez, Bianchi, and no

time set for Perez, Maldonado, or for Grosjean. So that's how this

first session has gone. Been a difficult start again for both

Caterham and Lotus, but for Mercedes, it looks as though they're

going to be fighting fit as we saw in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks to Alex Rossi and Tony. Let's get back down stairs now to Lee. An

interesting session. Good if you're Hamilton. They were hoping that all

the work they did in the last couple of weeks in the mechanic s looks

like they needed a boost, but they did very few laps the. Romain

Grosjean did get back out there. And Raikkonen, he was a surprise popping

up in second. Not too sure. If Ferrari thought was going to be a

little bit quicker around here, but maybe Alonso, more than Kimi, but

this circuit is little bit difficult in terms of its characteristics,

whether it's a contender in terms of the overall is one thing, but it

will be more competitive. We can see there how they finished up. A good

day if you have am Mercedes Benz in the back of your car, but that's

certainly not a surprise. No. They have the upper hand, but you have to

say tore row Rosso, is not far away. Therefore, I think they'll be a

little bit faster again. We can see the Lotus guys right at the bottom.

They're going to have a long night and not a good day either if you're

Sergio Perez. Kamui Kobayashi didn't get that many laps either. That's

the problem with these guys this is a real opportunity nor them at the

beginning of the season when other teams have reliability problem ps,

try to maybe get that one point that could be critical at the end of the

season between Marushia. But it's just all switched when we got to

Melbourne. OK, this is the time where the teams really, really have

to get the work right to give them the edge for the rest of the

weekend. Thank you very much fur your company so far. You have done

the hard work. You might as well stay up for free practice so. We'd

love to see you in 2 hours 20 minutes. Bye, bye.