The Malaysian Grand Prix - Practice 2

:01:17. > :01:21.Lewis Hamilton failed to finish the Australian Grand Prix. Hiss

:01:22. > :01:24.team-mate, Nico Rosberg, went on to win. He currently sits at the top of

:01:25. > :01:27.the drivers' championship. Rookie Kevin Magnussen is an impressive

:01:28. > :01:31.second, and his team-mate Jenson Button is third. Daniel Ricciardo

:01:32. > :01:37.was disqualified despite finishing second. Red Bull didn't meet

:01:38. > :01:43.fuel-flow regulations. They will appeal. Red Bull don't even feature

:01:44. > :01:49.in the constructioners', with Vettel not finishing either.

:01:50. > :01:55.Well, the pit lane was pretty hot and sweaty this morning. After the,

:01:56. > :02:02.it's the task of Tom Clarkson and Jenny Gaw. It was very uncomfortable

:02:03. > :02:06.this morning. The air tempis now 34 degrees, five up on this morning.

:02:07. > :02:09.The track temperature is the one the teams will be worried about. It's

:02:10. > :02:15.nigh on 15 degrees warmer than it was this morning. It's 54 degrees

:02:16. > :02:18.now. Also, spare a thought for these guys, the mechanics. It's a good ten

:02:19. > :02:21.degrees warmer in the garages than where I'm standing out here in the

:02:22. > :02:24.pit lane. You're looking at Pastor Maldonado's car. He is not going to

:02:25. > :02:28.be doing much running during this session. There's no rear end on his

:02:29. > :02:35.car after his engine let go this morning. We're also not going to see

:02:36. > :02:39.Kamui Kobayashi, who's got a similar problem with hisicateroom. The cars

:02:40. > :02:43.doing their tyre comparisons and long runs this afternoon. They'll

:02:44. > :02:47.learn a lot in these temperatures about degradation, and I'm going to

:02:48. > :02:51.learn a lot about sweating buckets! Degradation and rehydration, Tom!

:02:52. > :02:57.You can also get involved - without having to set it out on pit lane.

:02:58. > :03:03.You can also leave a comment on the BBC Sport Facebook page. Who knows -

:03:04. > :03:06.maybe James Alan will read them out? Alan has joined James in the cool,

:03:07. > :03:10.air-conditioned commentary box. Gentlemen? One of the challenges

:03:11. > :03:14.here will be that the temperatures in qualifying and the race - it will

:03:15. > :03:17.be two hours later in the day. Not representative session at all,

:03:18. > :03:21.really. The temperature will go down when the race is on. We were

:03:22. > :03:26.chatting on the way over here. This is one of Hermon Tilker's first

:03:27. > :03:29.circuits, the Formula 1 designer and, you think it's one of the best?

:03:30. > :03:33.Personally, I feel it's one of the best. Nice, technical corners that

:03:34. > :03:37.are quite slow. You have to work with them. It's also got some nice,

:03:38. > :03:41.fast and flowing sections through turn five and turn six, which you

:03:42. > :03:47.enter at about 190 miles per hour and slow it down through the apex of

:03:48. > :03:52.the corners. You have to drive and attack the circuit. Personally, when

:03:53. > :03:56.you end up having done a good lap around here, you feel like you've

:03:57. > :04:00.earned it. There's an awful lot of talk about as the drivers get

:04:01. > :04:02.strapped into their cars for this 90-minute second free practice

:04:03. > :04:05.session. This morning, Lewis Hamilton set the pace. He was the

:04:06. > :04:11.pole sitter, of course, that first Grand Prix in Australia two weeks

:04:12. > :04:14.ago in the Mercedes - 1.40.691, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the

:04:15. > :04:17.Ferrari. One of the big talking points of this weekend - obviously

:04:18. > :04:22.dealing with the temperatures - is how the drivers, cars and engineers

:04:23. > :04:27.keep those cars cool from a reliability point of view. This is a

:04:28. > :04:32.new hybrid turbo technology, and cooling is more important with these

:04:33. > :04:38.new cars than it was with the old V8s last year. We're already seeing

:04:39. > :04:41.teams opening up that body work. We saw Ferrari's engine cover this

:04:42. > :04:47.morning - it's highly ventilated. That will be a theme over the next

:04:48. > :04:52.36 hours. They didn't have a turbo before. They're running at about

:04:53. > :04:56.1,000 degrees Celsius. You also have a new hybrid system with ten times

:04:57. > :04:59.the energy capacity level, producing double the power. Therefore, there's

:05:00. > :05:03.a lot more heat from that. The cars are generally a little bit bigger at

:05:04. > :05:06.the back end to try to get that air flowing through. We've seen a few

:05:07. > :05:09.teams this morning - McLaren especially, and also Mercedes -

:05:10. > :05:14.checking out what was the best option there. Two varieties of

:05:15. > :05:17.cooling packages. They wanted to get the least negative - from the

:05:18. > :05:22.aerodynamic down-force point of view - with the most positive, which is

:05:23. > :05:26.the best cooling. The pit lane is open now. No-one yet going out on

:05:27. > :05:32.circuit. 49 degrees the track temperature, 34 the air temperature.

:05:33. > :05:36.Alan was saying about the aerodynamic trade-off - in Formula

:05:37. > :05:44.1, as in life, you never get something for nothing. If you open

:05:45. > :05:50.up the body work to increase the cooling, you'll get less down-force.

:05:51. > :05:53.How much reliability matter in intense temperatures versus how much

:05:54. > :05:57.down-force and rear-end stability, particularly - am I going to lose by

:05:58. > :06:00.opening up that body work? That's a trade-off that's one of the top

:06:01. > :06:03.priorities of all Formula 1 teams in a weekend like this. It's always a

:06:04. > :06:07.trade-off all the way through, especially right now at the

:06:08. > :06:09.beginning of the season. The teams don't necessarily know the cars very

:06:10. > :06:13.well. They're still learning about the new tyres because they're

:06:14. > :06:17.slightly different from before. In general, they have less aerodynamic

:06:18. > :06:21.grip by the regulation changes that happened. They're also coming to

:06:22. > :06:27.terms with this whole process. The real thing is that, in the middle of

:06:28. > :06:30.the pack, fighting for everything behind the Mercedes, who look to be

:06:31. > :06:34.a step ahead, the differences are within half a tenth of a second per

:06:35. > :06:37.lap. You can't to lose that bit of extra and be on the safe side.

:06:38. > :06:43.You've got to play a risk game. Absolutely. It looks as though the

:06:44. > :06:46.Mercedes power teams are a little bit more confident on the cooling

:06:47. > :06:51.than the others. They seem to have less body work open. Ferrari are

:06:52. > :06:55.definitely taking no chances with what we've seen so far this morning.

:06:56. > :07:00.I'm sure Tom and Jenny will be across that throughout the course of

:07:01. > :07:03.this second free practice session. Romain Grosjean, who came to a

:07:04. > :07:08.grinding hot this morning in free practice - just two out laps, didn't

:07:09. > :07:12.actually complete a whole lap, the same with team-mate Pastor

:07:13. > :07:17.Maldonado, who Tom Clarkson was telling us will not take part in

:07:18. > :07:25.this session - what a torrid start to his Lotus career for Kevin

:07:26. > :07:28.Magnussen. Chilton, Bianchi are out on circuit. Ricciardo and Vettel

:07:29. > :07:33.being strapped into their cars at the moment. Ricciardo the subject of

:07:34. > :07:36.an appeal now since the disqualification, as we were hearing

:07:37. > :07:39.about from Lee at the top of the show. It's difficult to know which

:07:40. > :07:43.way that's going to go, isn't it? The FIA are very sure of their case

:07:44. > :07:47.- that they told Red Bull to turn down the fuel flow, and Red Bull

:07:48. > :07:51.ignored them, and therefore were not in compliance with the rules. Red

:07:52. > :07:55.Bull say these sensors you've given us to work with this year are just

:07:56. > :07:58.not accurate enough. Our own system is more accurate, and we choose to

:07:59. > :08:03.follow our own rules, not yours. Where do you stand on this one? It's

:08:04. > :08:06.a very difficult one, because you're looking at two sides of the coin.

:08:07. > :08:12.The fact of the matter is, the FIA stipulate that you have to use their

:08:13. > :08:16.technology. You have to go by that. That is effectively what the law

:08:17. > :08:20.says. Now it's gone to appeal, then it will be discussed by lawyers.

:08:21. > :08:25.It's not a sporting matter - this is a legal matter in a way, now, and

:08:26. > :08:28.will be taken as if a pure court of law. I think it will be an uphill

:08:29. > :08:32.struggle for Red Bull, to be honest with you. I can also understand

:08:33. > :08:35.their sentiment. We have to remember that Daniel Ricciardo drove a

:08:36. > :08:39.fantastic race. The difference of performance benefit that he got was

:08:40. > :08:42.minimal. But it doesn't matter - if you're a millimetre over the line or

:08:43. > :08:47.a metre over the line, you're over the line. That's what the FIA's

:08:48. > :08:50.statement clearly said. A lot of teams are talking about this being

:08:51. > :08:54.like the scales they have in the garages - they may have scales which

:08:55. > :08:57.are calibrated slightly differently from the FIA ones down at pit lane.

:08:58. > :09:00.When the car gets weighed in qualifying or whatever, it's the FIA

:09:01. > :09:04.scales are the ones you have to make sure you get it calibrated to. I

:09:05. > :09:09.think what you will see this weekend is that the teams will be a little

:09:10. > :09:14.on the conservative side. They don't want to get in to the particulars of

:09:15. > :09:17.it. If you have a good result, you don't want to celebrate what you

:09:18. > :09:19.think has been a fantastic result, as happened with Daniel Ricciardo,

:09:20. > :09:28.only to have it overturned. On the subject of that fuel flow,

:09:29. > :09:35.there is a briefing this evening here in the Sepang paddock from the

:09:36. > :09:39.FIA's man in charge of that, Bruce Lahm, who you know well, Alan. A

:09:40. > :09:44.murisha pulled to the side of the road - Max Chilton, already, only

:09:45. > :09:47.four minutes into the session. Marussia would appear to have lost

:09:48. > :09:50.UN of their cars. Only did eight laps this morning, Chilton. He's

:09:51. > :09:54.having a tough start to his weekend. I was going to say, this briefing -

:09:55. > :09:59.you can read all about it and follow it up on the BBC Sport website,

:10:00. > :10:01.where you will also find Lewis Hamilton's latest column saying

:10:02. > :10:04.these new rules are very complicated for the drivers to deal with. Make

:10:05. > :10:10.sure you check out the BBC Sport website. Max Chilton here, he's in

:10:11. > :10:14.the grass. He basically is looks as if he's trying to find a gear. He

:10:15. > :10:19.spun the car, dropped the right-hand side wheel on the inside kerb, and

:10:20. > :10:23.looked to cart arbd around. Whilst he's been looping it around, it

:10:24. > :10:26.appears he's stuck in between two gears, and that's the cause of him

:10:27. > :10:30.not being able to get it back to the pit stop. Hopefully he'll be able to

:10:31. > :10:35.get a rocking motion to the car, and that will bring it back in. Chilton

:10:36. > :10:38.doing in practice what he's not done yet, Alan, in a Grand Prix - come to

:10:39. > :10:42.a stop. He's managed to finish every single race he started. I wonder

:10:43. > :10:47.whether he'll be able to get it back. He might be able to get it

:10:48. > :10:51.towed back or put on a flatbed. It looks like he's maybe stalled. He

:10:52. > :10:56.released a clutch to get it going again. It jumped and lurched forward

:10:57. > :10:59.then on a replay. It looks like it could be stalled for them. If you're

:11:00. > :11:03.out on circuit, normally you are for the rest of the session. How do you

:11:04. > :11:08.judge Marussia from what they're running so far? A Ferrari engine in

:11:09. > :11:14.the back, Ferrari power unit - not one of the teams that's been

:11:15. > :11:19.struggling so far with Renault. KTRM have been having a torrid time with

:11:20. > :11:23.the Renault-powered unit. Do you think this is a possibility for them

:11:24. > :11:27.to score a point in one of the early races? Without doubt, it's an

:11:28. > :11:31.opportunity for all teams that will normally struggle at the back of the

:11:32. > :11:36.grid to get a point. We've seen that historically - some of the top

:11:37. > :11:43.teams, as was clear in Melbourne, with Sebastian Vettel and Lewis

:11:44. > :11:47.Hamilton going out early - that just lifts the whole grid forward, with

:11:48. > :11:53.the two top runners out. Neither Marussia or KTRM were able to

:11:54. > :11:57.achieve that. Marussia has leap-ing forked KTRM in terms of performance

:11:58. > :11:59.and rilt. They are making moves forward up the grid. It's

:12:00. > :12:03.unfortunate there's a lot of very good teams ahead of them, though.

:12:04. > :12:07.Max Chilton, as expected after that, is having to get out of the car.

:12:08. > :12:11.That's his session over. That will be very, very frustrating

:12:12. > :12:18.considering he didn't do many laps this morning. Lost it on that kerb.

:12:19. > :12:27.Grosjean is fastest at the moment from Perez, Bianchi, Vergne,

:12:28. > :12:37.Hulkenberg, and Magnussen. Still 88 minutes of the session going.

:12:38. > :12:43.Back to Tom Clarkson in the pits. It's interesting to see Mercedes

:12:44. > :12:48.reacting to the higher temperatures after the. This morning, they had

:12:49. > :12:54.back to back two engine covers - a thin and a fat. They're actually

:12:55. > :12:57.running the fatter, oval-shaped engine cover exit this afternoon,

:12:58. > :13:01.because there's 50% more radiator surface area in these cars this year

:13:02. > :13:05.compared to last year. That heat's got to go somewhere. Mercedes think

:13:06. > :13:09.they need this wider exit to get rid of this heat in these high

:13:10. > :13:11.temperatures. It's definitely one of the things that the teams are going

:13:12. > :13:15.to be looking at more this afternoon. The temperatures are a

:13:16. > :13:18.little bit more representative. Not ideally represented of the race

:13:19. > :13:24.time, but they are more representative to it. However,

:13:25. > :13:27.they're all very much against it - designers hate having to basically

:13:28. > :13:30.get rid of all their good work in the wind tunnel just because of a

:13:31. > :13:34.little bit of temperature. The man that hates it most seems to be

:13:35. > :13:39.Adrian New, because he's done very little about it. He likes to

:13:40. > :13:42.shrink-wrap the body work around his cars, almost like cling film, it's

:13:43. > :13:46.so tight to the interinals of the car. The temperatures underneath

:13:47. > :13:50.those engine covers - I was asking around the teams - typically

:13:51. > :13:56.somewhere around 120-125 degrees in a place like this. The gearboxes run

:13:57. > :13:59.at 135 degrees. Really some very, very extreme technology. You can

:14:00. > :14:03.imagine what the oil's got to do to cope with that - these things must

:14:04. > :14:07.be on the verge of extinction almost every lap. They certainly are.

:14:08. > :14:10.That's what the modern age is. That's also what their cars are

:14:11. > :14:16.doing as well, with the new developments in the fuels and the

:14:17. > :14:20.oils, because of motorsport - it definitely has helped us on our day.

:14:21. > :14:24.With Jean-Eric Vergne coming through, you can see how much the

:14:25. > :14:27.car is twitching around and how unstable the rear end is. He's

:14:28. > :14:31.always fighting the steering wheel - not big corrections, a lot of small

:14:32. > :14:33.corrections. This is something we saw in Melbourne. It will be

:14:34. > :14:38.accentuated because of the nature of the circuit here. This is because

:14:39. > :14:42.they've got red of those exhaust blown diffusers at the back of the

:14:43. > :14:45.cars, and they've taken one of the elements out of the rear wing.

:14:46. > :14:48.That's made the back of these cars more unstable, yeah? You've got

:14:49. > :14:53.that, but you also have slightly harder tyres. Pirelli have gone a

:14:54. > :14:57.little bit more on the safe side. As well, you've increased the torque.

:14:58. > :15:01.Coming out of the corner - that was coming into the corner, Vergne

:15:02. > :15:05.fighting it a lot going onto the back straight. They've got about 60%

:15:06. > :15:08.more torque than they had last year out of the corner. When you hit the

:15:09. > :15:12.thoughtal and it leaps up and electroifies the rear of the car.

:15:13. > :15:15.Tural, puff of smoke there from Vergne at the left front before he

:15:16. > :15:19.went into a spin. We'll keep an eye - watch out for the braking if into

:15:20. > :15:24.the final hair. They have a different braking system now in

:15:25. > :15:29.Formula 1 this year - brake by wire, it's called. There's an electronic

:15:30. > :15:33.component to it, designed to take the clunkiness out of the

:15:34. > :15:44.energy-harvesting going on by the new hybrid system.

:15:45. > :15:51.This circuit isn't used a heck of a lot. Outside of that, there's very,

:15:52. > :15:54.very little. It's a harmless spin, but he's basically backed off now

:15:55. > :15:58.and will come back towards the pits. He looked as if he was right on the

:15:59. > :16:04.limit every other corner we saw him in. He was close to losing it on the

:16:05. > :16:06.previous corner as well. Kevin Magnussen chews his lip. A

:16:07. > :16:10.tremendous calmness about this young Dane. He finished on the podium on

:16:11. > :16:14.his Grand Prix debut in Australia, emulating what Lewis Hamilton did in

:16:15. > :16:18.Melbourne back in 2007 on his first-ever Grand Prix. Of course, he

:16:19. > :16:21.then had a bonus after the race by finding that Ricciardo had been

:16:22. > :16:29.disqualified - Magnussen classified, for the moment, in second place.

:16:30. > :16:33.What happens in that scenario? Does he pop next door to Red Bull and ask

:16:34. > :16:36.Ricciardo for the second-place trophy, ending the appeal? Or does

:16:37. > :16:41.he wait for the appeal and then claim the trophy off him later? More

:16:42. > :16:44.to the case - will Ricciardo give the trophy back?

:16:45. > :16:48.LAUGHS Jenson Button's gone six-tenths of a

:16:49. > :16:53.second faster than anyone else at the moment. Just half a second

:16:54. > :16:58.slower than he did this morning. Jenson - it looked as if the car was

:16:59. > :17:01.working well this morning. They look hooked up all of the time. Unlike

:17:02. > :17:05.Valtteri Bottas, who's struggling a lot with the rear end and the rear

:17:06. > :17:08.stability, especially going into the corners. Here you've got a lot of

:17:09. > :17:10.long corners like the turn one that we're live on board with on the nose

:17:11. > :18:07.of the car. That's quite tricky. Only ten drivers with a competitive

:18:08. > :18:10.time so far. We call this the T-tray underneath, skinning along the

:18:11. > :18:14.ground. It won't have enjoyed that excursion, as the left front wheel

:18:15. > :18:17.of the Lotus goes off track. He's come up to turn four. You can run

:18:18. > :18:22.and get two wheels over the kerb. If you do, you get the belly of the car

:18:23. > :18:27.onto the top of the kerb. It seems to just bobble left and right. You

:18:28. > :18:30.can turn back off it. You've got to try and drive straight off it. The

:18:31. > :18:34.underflow of the car doesn't like it. Aerodynamically, it gets rubbed.

:18:35. > :18:38.In reality, it's not too bad. We were talking about the calmness of

:18:39. > :18:42.Kevin Magnussen - the podium on his Grand Prix debut. His father, Yann,

:18:43. > :18:45.was not able to see him racing in Australia, because he was racing

:18:46. > :18:49.himself. He is here in Malaysia, and he's talking with Tom.

:18:50. > :18:56.Yann, you must be a very proud father after what your boy achieved

:18:57. > :19:02.in Melbourne! Absolutely. Absolutely fantastic in Australia. So happy for

:19:03. > :19:07.Kevin. It's a fantastic start to a Formula 1 career. You made your

:19:08. > :19:12.Grand Prix debut with this team as well - a Pacific Grand Prix, if I

:19:13. > :19:16.remember correctly. Talk us through what the achievement of what Kevin

:19:17. > :19:23.managed to do in Melbourne - did it exceed your own expectations? I

:19:24. > :19:29.think yes, a little bit, because it is - it was quite amazing, what

:19:30. > :19:36.happened in Australia - how qualifying went. Extremely difficult

:19:37. > :19:41.conditions. He didn't put a foot wrong, and got the best out of it.

:19:42. > :19:46.Had a great race, ended up on the podium your first race - just

:19:47. > :19:51.absolutely fantastic. Was he better-prepared for his debut than

:19:52. > :19:58.you were for yours? I think so. He's been with the programme for some

:19:59. > :20:02.years now. It's been a whole education for him. I was not worried

:20:03. > :20:06.that he would arrive in Australia and not be prepared for the job.

:20:07. > :20:11.Most worries were, "How good is the car going to be? Are they back to

:20:12. > :20:15.being competitive?" It showed that they were, and Kevin did an amazing

:20:16. > :20:22.job with it. Tell us what sort of a kid he was - I mean, he's so calm

:20:23. > :20:27.and mature. Was it always like that? He's not always a calm kid - still

:20:28. > :20:38.isn't. But he's here, he's very professional. He's thought ful and

:20:39. > :20:42.thing -- thoughtful and thinks to do things in the right way. Super

:20:43. > :20:45.confident. I think he's got all that it takes. Was it obvious from the

:20:46. > :20:53.first time he drove a car that he has, as you say, got what it takes?

:20:54. > :20:57.Well, he started very, very early, so to begin with it was like any

:20:58. > :21:03.other kid - just for fun and playing around. But once it got more serious

:21:04. > :21:10.with Kevin, it's quite easy to see that he did have something special.

:21:11. > :21:13.For him, it's been a whole education with McLaren that's made the

:21:14. > :21:19.difference, and they've really, really gotten the best out of him,

:21:20. > :21:23.giving him time to develop and giving him the tools to do the job

:21:24. > :21:26.right. I've got to ask this question - is he better than you? Much, much

:21:27. > :21:28.better. LAUGHS

:21:29. > :21:31.Jan, thank you so much for your time. It's such a great thing to

:21:32. > :21:35.have a young kid like him coming through and so well. Thanks a lot.

:21:36. > :21:40.Thank you. Thank you. Tom Clarkson there with Jan Magnussen, the

:21:41. > :21:44.clearly very proud father of Kevin. Well, he's every reason to be proud.

:21:45. > :21:48.It looks as though Romain Grosjean is touring around at the moment. I

:21:49. > :21:51.don't know if it's another problem for that Renault power unit in the

:21:52. > :21:55.back of the Lotus, but certainly Grosjean this morning having a

:21:56. > :21:59.pretty tough time. This afternoon, he has managed to turn nine complete

:22:00. > :22:04.laps, but he's on his way back to the pits, it would appear. You've

:22:05. > :22:08.raced against Jan Magnussen - most of us that have seen Jan and Kevin's

:22:09. > :22:10.career would agree with Jan's assessment that the son is

:22:11. > :22:14.definitely a better driver than the father. Not least because he's more

:22:15. > :22:18.disciplined. I think he came up in a different era. There's no question

:22:19. > :22:23.about it. Jan had a tremendous amount of natural talent.

:22:24. > :22:27.Unbelievable skill and success in the junior formulas. Formula 1, it

:22:28. > :22:31.probably wasn't the right team and time for him, and didn't necessarily

:22:32. > :22:34.a evthe success that he could have done. It looks as though everything

:22:35. > :22:39.sorted itself out for Kevin at this moment in time. He's got to get on

:22:40. > :22:44.with the programme now he's shown what he can do. He's got to do it

:22:45. > :22:50.week in and week out - that's the tough part. It's cool that Jan can

:22:51. > :22:52.be so at peace with the whole thing - he can be calm and happy that his

:22:53. > :23:02.son is a better driver than him. Everyone is still using the

:23:03. > :23:05.harder-compound Pirelli tyre at this stage. We will see qualifying

:23:06. > :23:10.simulations in around 20-30 minutes from now, then they'll go back out

:23:11. > :23:15.and do some long runs, simulating the early part of the Grand Prix -

:23:16. > :23:18.the very distinctive colour scheme of the new Williams. Felipe Massa

:23:19. > :23:46.currently in fourth. A lot of long, right-hand corners.

:23:47. > :23:50.He's got a vibration on the left front tyre - you can see it was

:23:51. > :23:54.vibrating down the straight a bit. The whole left-hand side gets a heck

:23:55. > :24:01.of a lot of loading. Coming out of the corners, it's the left too. A

:24:02. > :24:05.lot of people are having trouble with that corner. Nico Rosberg -

:24:06. > :24:10.that wasn't by design, that's for sure. Cadence braking to try and

:24:11. > :24:15.slow it down. A quick trip through the gravel. Then necessitated to

:24:16. > :24:19.clean out most of the gravel in the pit lane. Why are they having

:24:20. > :24:22.problems? Is it anything to do with this new brake-by-wire system,

:24:23. > :24:27.giving the drivers less feel on the brakes? I think it's a combination

:24:28. > :24:31.of things. It's less aerodynamic grip, slightly harder tyre

:24:32. > :24:35.compounds, and trying to understand the recuperation of these new hybrid

:24:36. > :24:38.systems that have significantly more potential. Then there's also the

:24:39. > :24:41.last part about the new braking system and all of it together means

:24:42. > :24:46.that the drivers are finding it tough. Engineers as well, to get the

:24:47. > :24:50.correct balances. The rear DRS wing pops open on Sebastian Vettel's car.

:24:51. > :24:55.You'll see some day-glow paint, those of you watching on TV or

:24:56. > :25:02.online, on the right-hand side of the rear wing of that Red Bull car.

:25:03. > :25:05.That is called Flow Viz Paint. The air odynamicists paint that onto the

:25:06. > :25:09.cars, send it out, and as the wind passes through, it forms a pattern.

:25:10. > :25:13.They can take photographs of that and analyse it and can see whether

:25:14. > :25:16.or not the aerodynamic parts, like the engine cover and the rear wing,

:25:17. > :25:22.in this case, are actually doing what they're supposed to do, what

:25:23. > :25:25.they were designed to do from all the work they've done in the wind

:25:26. > :25:30.tunnels. Everybody else can see that as well. All the other teams have

:25:31. > :25:33.their eagle-eyed employed photographers taking pictures on the

:25:34. > :25:36.circuit. They will see if Red Bull's rear wing is doing what it's

:25:37. > :25:39.supposed to do. It is a useful tool for measuring whether you're on the

:25:40. > :25:44.right track. A wind tunnel is a simulation tool. It simulates. It

:25:45. > :25:48.isn't the real world. You always need to correlate between the wind

:25:49. > :25:50.andunl and the track. That's something -- wind tunnel and the

:25:51. > :25:56.track. That's something Red Bull have been very, very good at in the

:25:57. > :25:59.past. Even they still like to check it in the real world. Daniel

:26:00. > :26:03.Ricciardo there running a little bit wide coming out of turn six... .

:26:04. > :26:07.Very tricky double right-hander - you've got to throw the car in,

:26:08. > :26:12.which you don't want to do because it destabilises the rear. You need

:26:13. > :26:40.to. If not, the front doesn't grip and you miss the apexes.

:26:41. > :26:44.Kobayashi and Maldonado will not take any part in this session. You

:26:45. > :26:55.can send us your questions and share your thoughts with us by tweeting us

:26:56. > :26:58.using BBCF1, or commenting on the BBC Sport page.

:26:59. > :27:02.A question from Timothy: "Do you think Red Bull have a serious chance

:27:03. > :27:08.of winning a Grand Prix this season, Allan?" I do. Daniel Ricciardo

:27:09. > :27:13.finished second at the last Grand Prix on the road. If Nico Rosberg

:27:14. > :27:15.had any type of problem similar to Lewis Hamilton, he would have been

:27:16. > :27:19.the winner. I think there is a great chance of anybody in the top six or

:27:20. > :27:22.eight achieving that. I think on pure speed, they're a bit behind at

:27:23. > :27:27.the moment. They're one second down, basically. They need to improve. I

:27:28. > :27:30.would think that that's going to come by the time they get back to

:27:31. > :27:34.Europe, by the time we get back to the Spanish Grand Prix in a couple

:27:35. > :27:40.of races' time. You can see, those of you watching online or on TV, the

:27:41. > :27:44.flow viz paint being painted on the the underside of the nose on the Red

:27:45. > :27:47.Bull car. Quite extensive work. This is essentially a test session, the

:27:48. > :27:50.Friday practice. They run in configurations they would not be

:27:51. > :27:54.allowed to qualify and race in, with all sorts of it infra-red cameras

:27:55. > :27:58.measuring exhaust output and that kind of thing. Look at the great

:27:59. > :28:05.pipe out the back of the engine cover of the turbo a little bit

:28:06. > :28:09.further up. 100,000 RPM, that turbo spins to. That's what contributes to

:28:10. > :28:16.this amazing noise these cars make, the whistling sound when you stand

:28:17. > :28:23.next to it. Not quite like the old sierra Coswood in Andy Raw's touring

:28:24. > :28:27.days Shows your age, James! It's a good sound, but it could be a bit

:28:28. > :28:33.louder. We've had a lot of comments on the BBC Sport Facebook page about

:28:34. > :28:36.the sound and the quieter F1. Daniel says, "The new engine sound is like

:28:37. > :28:42.Marmite - you either love it or hate it. It's growing on me." Andy: "Love

:28:43. > :28:47.hearing the turbo when the car down-shifts." "You can hear the

:28:48. > :28:52.engine grown growl, the exhaust pop and the pistons fire. It's more

:28:53. > :28:56.attractive." "Hybrid race cars sunk!" That's from Jim. The best of

:28:57. > :29:00.your comments will be included in the live text commentary on the BBC

:29:01. > :29:04.Sport Formula 1 website. Make sure you have that going on on the second

:29:05. > :29:11.screen. That's Bernie Ecclestone, the ringleader. The man behind him

:29:12. > :29:15.is Ong Been Seng, the promoter of the Singapore Grand Prix. Quite a

:29:16. > :29:20.lively character, as you can tell from his interactions with the

:29:21. > :29:26.photographers down there. Burnie taking a walk down the -- Bernie

:29:27. > :29:29.taking a walk down the Formula 1 pit lane and braving the temperatures.

:29:30. > :29:32.He didn't come to the Australian Grand Prix, but he's certainly here.

:29:33. > :29:36.65 minutes remaining on the clock in this second free practice session

:29:37. > :29:39.ahead of Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix. Second round of the Formula 1

:29:40. > :29:52.World Championship. The times they're down to now, with

:29:53. > :29:56.Alonso and Vettel split by hundredths, is exactly the same as

:29:57. > :30:00.what they were this morning. When they start to get out and do a bit

:30:01. > :30:04.of a qualifying run, I expect the times to be pretty much faster than

:30:05. > :30:19.that. It is pretty close, because it's 40. 7 for Alonso, 40. 7 for

:30:20. > :30:24.Hamilton. Lots of 41.0 after. It's a long lap - 3.44-mile circuit, this

:30:25. > :30:28.one. 54 laps on race day. A tricky circuit. 15 corners. Getting the car

:30:29. > :30:31.slowed down, particularly into the final hairpin as we've been seeing

:30:32. > :30:34.all weekend, is a challenge. So are some of the high-speed switchbacks,

:30:35. > :30:38.particularly with that lack of rear-end stability of these 2014

:30:39. > :30:44.cars. There's quite a lot of corners on this track where that's a

:30:45. > :30:47.problem. It's also the long corner entries like 13 and 14, like

:30:48. > :30:51.Jean-Eric Vergne has gone through in the Toro Rosso. You're breaking,

:30:52. > :30:54.turning, down-shifting, a lot of things and, the car is unstable at

:30:55. > :30:57.that point. From the driver's point of view, you want to brake to stop

:30:58. > :31:00.the car, but also have to release the brake to let it float into the

:31:01. > :31:12.corner in a balanced fashion. We're starting to see the first cars

:31:13. > :31:19.now going out on the medium tyre, the fastest. Pirelli talked about

:31:20. > :31:23.them being 1.2-1. 5 seconds per lap. That will have a big impact on race

:31:24. > :31:26.strategy if that's the case, because no-one will want to spend too much

:31:27. > :31:30.time on Sunday on the slower tyre. They'll find out now, what is the

:31:31. > :31:34.difference in performance between the medium and hard compound Pirelli

:31:35. > :31:39.tyres. It's not all just about lap time, but the drop-off - how long

:31:40. > :31:45.can they use that extra 1. 2 seconds? Three laps? Five laps?

:31:46. > :31:50.Seven? We heard comments this morning from Sebastian Vettel in --

:31:51. > :31:53.Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso saying the car was undrivable. He'd

:31:54. > :31:59.lost his rear tyre grip at that point. If they have that problem in

:32:00. > :32:12.the race, they'll have to go to the hard.

:32:13. > :32:19.Ericsson and Sergio Perez are on the medium tyre. Alonso, Hamilton,

:32:20. > :32:25.Vettel, Bottas, Massa - the top five at the moment. :

:32:26. > :32:30.We saw Bernie Ecclestone walking down pit lane. Tom Clarkson will

:32:31. > :32:33.catch up with him. It will take two or three races to see what's going

:32:34. > :32:37.to happen. What do you think of the noise? Better than I thought. How

:32:38. > :32:41.about Melbourne? Give us your take on events in Melbourne and what's

:32:42. > :32:46.your take on fuel-flow meters? Nobody seemed happy about that, did

:32:47. > :32:51.they? Let's wait for a few races and see. Is it nice to see a new team at

:32:52. > :32:55.the top? Quite good for Formula 1, that Vettel's not the man

:32:56. > :33:00.dominating? Yeah, it's good. This year, it's going to be difficult to

:33:01. > :33:04.know who's going to do what. Bernie, to go back to the noise, there seems

:33:05. > :33:08.to be so much discussion, particularly in the UK, about

:33:09. > :33:15.Formula 1 should be loud, the earth should shake as they go by - do you

:33:16. > :33:19.still think that? Trouble is, people buy Formula 1. When they get what we

:33:20. > :33:24.got at the moment - they think it's not Formula 1. So we'll see. This is

:33:25. > :33:30.Formula 12014, isn't it? I don't know. What do you think? I think

:33:31. > :33:33.it's fabulous. I think the pros outweigh the cons myself. But it's

:33:34. > :33:40.much more important what you think. Good. If you think that, it's good.

:33:41. > :33:44.Good. Do you think we could make the cars noisier by tampering with the

:33:45. > :33:49.exhaust? You'll have to ask the engineers. I don't know. Who's your

:33:50. > :33:53.money on this weekend? It's hot. I hadn't noticed that. You think it's

:33:54. > :34:00.hot? I won't show you what's under my bib. Who's your money on this

:34:01. > :34:06.weekend? I think I'd have to say maybe a Mercedes. Would you like to

:34:07. > :34:09.see Lewis instead of Niko this time? I don't care. Mercedes, but I don't

:34:10. > :34:18.care who. Thanks for your time. Bernie Ecclestone there with Tom

:34:19. > :34:21.Clarkson. Well, he thinks a Mercedes might win. I think it's a fairly

:34:22. > :34:25.safe bet they'll be up the front, judging by the performance we've

:34:26. > :34:30.seen so far this season. In Australia, they completely dominated

:34:31. > :34:32.with Nico Rosberg. At the moment, it's Fernando Alonso who has the

:34:33. > :34:42.fastest time. Ferrari feel this circuit is more

:34:43. > :34:46.representative to their true performance than Melbourne was,

:34:47. > :34:49.where they were very quick on Friday - Alonso quickest in free practice

:34:50. > :34:52.one on Friday morning. When it came to the race pace, they didn't quite

:34:53. > :34:58.have it. Alternatively, Mercedes suddenly went that little bit

:34:59. > :35:00.faster. They feel, around here, and historically, they have been much

:35:01. > :35:03.more competitive. That's exactly right. This was when Michael

:35:04. > :35:07.Schumacher was very successful here with Ferrari. Felipe Massa, in his

:35:08. > :35:11.Ferrari career, twice on pole around this place, and last year - although

:35:12. > :35:14.the conditions played a part in it - he actually started from the front

:35:15. > :35:17.row of the grid in a Ferrari with Alonso, his team-mate, in third

:35:18. > :35:21.place. It was a 2-3 on the grid for Ferrari. This is a track where they

:35:22. > :35:26.ought to be able to show their colours and show what they can do.

:35:27. > :35:32.The 21-year-old Dane that everybody is talking about. Kevin Magnussen

:35:33. > :36:10.hammering around turn one. It's easy to run too wide in that

:36:11. > :36:14.right. Try to be sure that you don't run too wide onto that outside kerb

:36:15. > :36:18.before taking a short breath down into the hairpin. This is one of the

:36:19. > :36:22.slowest corners on the circuit, this hairpin - 44 miles per hour. You

:36:23. > :36:25.just turn it up the hill, then squeeze on the throttle when the car

:36:26. > :36:29.is stable and going straight into the long right-hander. This one's

:36:30. > :36:34.where the rear end can be a little bit tricky. Can be a bit off-camera,

:36:35. > :36:45.then you accelerate hard. This was flatter.

:36:46. > :36:53.Now you see the DRS sign on the right-hand side - the DRS is open.

:36:54. > :36:56.Kevin Magnussen comes down towards the last corner, where a lot of cars

:36:57. > :37:02.have been making a mistake at the hairpin left-hander. He runs a bit

:37:03. > :37:08.too wide, loses 0. 3 or 0. 4 of a second. That is a lap of this 3.

:37:09. > :37:12.44-mile Sepang circuit - the 16th time it's been used for Grand Prix

:37:13. > :37:18.racing. Magnussen is 15th with that time. Interestingly, Allan, he

:37:19. > :37:22.clocked 319kph through the speed trap - identical time to the fastest

:37:23. > :37:26.we've seen so far from Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes-powered

:37:27. > :37:30.Williams. That is a whisker under 200 miles an hour. The speed trap is

:37:31. > :37:35.just before the braking zone into that final hairpin, where we've seen

:37:36. > :37:39.all those people making those lockups. 320kph is 200 miles per

:37:40. > :37:43.hour. I'll very sure that, if he puts his visor down a bit more,

:37:44. > :37:46.he'll be at 200 miles per hour. It's very, very quick. These cars are

:37:47. > :37:50.faster in top speed than they were last year. The other thing is that

:37:51. > :37:53.there's a big straight-line speed difference between the different

:37:54. > :37:57.cars. You can even hear it when you're standing out in the pit lane

:37:58. > :38:01.as they're driving past - you can hear different audio tones. But you

:38:02. > :38:05.can see visually as well, the ones that have got maybe a 6-8

:38:06. > :38:14.miles-an-hour speed. There's no lift on the corners. It's

:38:15. > :38:18.really not handling well. Kevin Magnussen there saying the car

:38:19. > :38:22.is over steering - the exit of the corners, when he's trying to put his

:38:23. > :38:25.power down, the rear end is snapping out. He's not able to throttle as

:38:26. > :38:29.aggressively as he wants to. Into the business part of the session now

:38:30. > :38:32.- 56 minutes remaining on the clock. Quite a few drivers, and quick

:38:33. > :38:38.drivers, have moved onto the faster tyre now. We've got Felipe Massa on

:38:39. > :38:42.a lap, Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton warming up for one as well.

:38:43. > :38:46.He's on an out lap. Sergio Perez one of the first to go on this tyre.

:38:47. > :38:50.Also, Nico Rosberg has just completed an out lap. We'll see some

:38:51. > :38:55.fast types - probably the fastest times of the day, set in the next

:38:56. > :38:57.few minutes. Felipe Massa is already through section one, into section

:38:58. > :39:04.two. He uses all the kerb and a little

:39:05. > :39:09.bit more on the outside of that corner. He's the fastest man of

:39:10. > :39:14.anybody so far in sector one. Rosberg is actually slowing, by half

:39:15. > :39:20.a tenth, through sector one than the Williams. Massa has got about half a

:39:21. > :39:24.lap to go. He's coming into the point where, really, the tyres have

:39:25. > :39:28.gone a bit. He's still four-tenths up on the best time of Alonso at

:39:29. > :39:36.this point. He's done his fastest, but Rosberg is quicker in the middle

:39:37. > :39:39.sector by 2. 5 tenths of a second. Nico Rosberg's charging down the

:39:40. > :39:42.advantage. Very interesting. It looks like the tyres on the Williams

:39:43. > :39:46.are not quite as good as they were at the start of the lap. I wonder if

:39:47. > :39:50.he's gone too hard at the start of the lap. Rosberg has been too

:39:51. > :39:53.cautious in the opening sector, possibly, and he's absolutely flown

:39:54. > :39:55.through the middle sector. Now he's in the final part of the lap. We'll

:39:56. > :40:18.see Massa crossing the line first. Rosberg didn't gain any more in the

:40:19. > :40:23.final sector. Certainly didn't. But Valtteri Bottas is quickest of

:40:24. > :40:27.anybody in sector one. The shift tones or BRS tones - just lots of

:40:28. > :40:31.other annoying tones. Message to Lewis Hamilton from his engineer

:40:32. > :40:36.talking about DRS tones. They're coming up to the DRS area now. It's

:40:37. > :40:42.an audio beep in your ear to tell you you can activate, and there's

:40:43. > :40:45.other things as well - for example, engine retrospective, upshift

:40:46. > :40:49.lights, and audio and visual tones now as well. Hamilton hasn't had a

:40:50. > :41:32.great middle sector. To be only a tenth off overall, it

:41:33. > :41:35.suggests Lewis Hamilton has a car pretty well hooked up around here.

:41:36. > :41:38.If he can eradicate whatever the problem was in the middle sector, he

:41:39. > :41:41.should be looking quite good. He lost that half a second, as you say,

:41:42. > :41:45.at that point when we were listening to that radio message. They tend to

:41:46. > :41:49.be delayed in the telecast, rather than actually live. It's not exactly

:41:50. > :41:54.at that point, but it's that part of the circuit when we were studying

:41:55. > :41:57.him on the screens - that's where he lost the time.

:41:58. > :42:39.Vettel yet to go onto medium-compound tyre.

:42:40. > :42:43.Kevin Magnussen coped so well with his first Grand Prix, at 19 years of

:42:44. > :42:46.age. Valtteri Bottas turned a little on

:42:47. > :42:50.the kerb. The left rear wheel was still on the kerb as he's turned

:42:51. > :42:54.into a corner. That's a delicate, balanced corner. You've got to be

:42:55. > :42:58.very, very careful. You have got to be aggressive, but you've got to be

:42:59. > :43:03.careful for the rear. He just got that wheel on the kerb and slid

:43:04. > :43:08.wide. That slightly meerkat-like expression of Adrian Newie as he

:43:09. > :43:12.looks and surveys his cars. A more competitive human being you will

:43:13. > :43:15.never encounter in your life - that includes the guys who sit inside the

:43:16. > :43:20.cockpits of the cars. Newie was born to win. He's certainly the most

:43:21. > :43:24.successful racing car engineer and designer so far in the history of

:43:25. > :43:27.Formula 1. He's not finished yet. He wants some success as soon as

:43:28. > :43:50.possible. Rosberg, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Massa,

:43:51. > :43:54.Bottas in the top five. I think Alonso, in the Ferrari, can pull

:43:55. > :44:00.more out in a pure qualifying lap than Kimi Raikkonen. I'd expect the

:44:01. > :44:02.Ferrari to be a touch fighting for that first position at this moment

:44:03. > :44:05.in free practice too. When you looked at Raikkonen there, he was

:44:06. > :44:09.very consistent all the way through the lap. He hooked up every corner.

:44:10. > :44:12.He didn't make any errors. It wasn't, ultimately, the quickest in

:44:13. > :44:16.any sector, but it was pretty good all the way through. Lockup from

:44:17. > :44:19.Kevin Magnussen in the McLaren. Had a personal best in the first is

:44:20. > :44:23.effecter. Slightly uneven middle sector for Magnussen. Well over a

:44:24. > :44:26.second slower. Meanwhile, Alonso, as predicted by Allan, is absolutely

:44:27. > :44:29.flying out there in the second Ferrari. He's the fastest of anybody

:44:30. > :44:50.in that long middle sector. Bianchi really having his hands full

:44:51. > :44:55.there. What's Alonso going to do? He's at the end of a lap now. He

:44:56. > :45:04.goes fourth-fastest. His first part of the circuit, he

:45:05. > :45:08.was five-tenths off. He had a really bad first sector, which we didn't

:45:09. > :45:13.see on camera. He was fastest of anyone in the middle sector. He was

:45:14. > :45:17.the fastest of the sixth session, and a tenth and a half off the final

:45:18. > :45:24.one. Hamilton, if he gets his best sector

:45:25. > :45:29.times all in the same lap, you're looking at something that's possibly

:45:30. > :45:33.four-tenths quicker than that - something in the mid-1. 39s. Still a

:45:34. > :45:40.good bit slower than last year's pace - we were seeing laps in the

:45:41. > :45:44.high 1.36s around here in the V8 engines. The track hasn't yet come

:45:45. > :45:51.up to speed. They had a MotoGP test here a few weeks ago. I'm talking to

:45:52. > :45:55.Pirelli in the lunch break. They said there's definitely some

:45:56. > :45:58.detriters left from that race. It's not rained much in this part of the

:45:59. > :46:01.world - would you will - over the last few weeks. That hasn't helped

:46:02. > :46:06.much either. There's a lot of deUS and dirt that needs to be cleared

:46:07. > :46:14.off this surface before we get to see the really serious lap times.

:46:15. > :46:20.Nico Hulkenberg wrestled a result out of his car in Melbourne. He did

:46:21. > :46:26.a better job than the car probably deserved at this point. It looked as

:46:27. > :46:29.if the whole car was sliding around, it wasn't getting the grip and

:46:30. > :46:34.turning. He was waiting, then going back onto the power to come out. He

:46:35. > :46:36.was locked in a battle with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Alonso

:46:37. > :46:39.coming out on top. The battle for sixth and seventh places on the

:46:40. > :46:46.road, behind Daniel Ricciardo, of course, who was disqualified from

:46:47. > :46:51.the second place with that result. Hulkenberg prumomented up to sixth

:46:52. > :46:55.place. Eight points on the board already for the young flyer -- young

:46:56. > :47:37.German flyer. Pretty close at the top between

:47:38. > :47:44.Rosberg in first place, and Vettel in sixth place - just over two

:47:45. > :47:58.tenths of a second. 39.909. 39. 944 for Raikkonen.

:47:59. > :48:05.What are we to read into this, then? Ferrari struggling to get into the

:48:06. > :48:08.corner in the hands of Alonso, and the back end stepping out on the

:48:09. > :48:11.corner exit as well. You can see how hard these drivers are having to

:48:12. > :48:15.work here. Alonso - this lap is not a personal best in either the first

:48:16. > :48:20.or second sector. It doesn't look as though there's much more pace to

:48:21. > :48:24.come out of these medium tyres on the second lap. The first lap

:48:25. > :48:25.definitely the faster lap around here, despite the fact there's less

:48:26. > :48:37.fuel in the car this time around. Alonso fourth-fastest. Up with.39. 9

:48:38. > :48:42.for Rosberg - he's the quickest. Raikkonen, Hamilton, Alonso.

:48:43. > :48:47.Mercedes, Ferrari, murs aidies, Ferrari. Then Red Bull, Williams,

:48:48. > :49:21.India... Chilton stopped out on circuit early

:49:22. > :49:25.on in the session. Kobayashi and Maldonado - both cars in bits in the

:49:26. > :49:34.pits. Neither of them looking like taking any part in this session. 45

:49:35. > :49:39.minutes to go in this free practice two from Malaysia. Jenny Goww is

:49:40. > :49:42.down at Lotus. Quite a lot of Pastor Maldonado's car missing. The guys

:49:43. > :49:46.working on it very slowly. In free practice one, we saw Pastor

:49:47. > :49:50.Maldonado's engine let go. A big plume of smoke coming out the rear

:49:51. > :49:55.of it. A lot of work needs to be done on Pastor's car. He will not be

:49:56. > :49:58.taking any part in this session. Things not looking that good for

:49:59. > :50:03.Romain Grosjean either. He did nine laps and didn't post a timed lap

:50:04. > :50:07.morning. The rear of the car - they've got the body work off and

:50:08. > :50:13.they're doing a lot of work around the back of this car. Lotus have

:50:14. > :50:16.been plagued by problems ever since they missed that first test. They

:50:17. > :50:20.were trying to catch up in Bahrain. Speaking to people in the break

:50:21. > :50:25.between the two sessions, they're not just one test behind everybody

:50:26. > :50:29.else. A lot of money and development and a lot of parts behind everybody

:50:30. > :50:33.else. It's going to take them until at least Barcelona to be on level

:50:34. > :50:36.terms, even though they're the smaller of the teams in this

:50:37. > :50:39.paddock. Thank you, Jenny. Sebastian Vettel is on another lap. Again, his

:50:40. > :50:48.first sector is not supremely fast. Ricciardo moves from tenth to

:50:49. > :51:09.seventh with the lap he has just completed.

:51:10. > :51:15.The impressive thing was it was on the second lap on the tyre. The car

:51:16. > :51:19.looked up - if we remember back to Fernando Alonso and his second lap

:51:20. > :51:31.on the tyre, he dropped off half a second in lap time.

:51:32. > :51:36.Interesting again - he was taking it fairly easy in the first is

:51:37. > :51:40.effecter. I don't know if he's got the speed infirst is effecter as

:51:41. > :51:46.opposed to taking it easy in the fist sector. I'm not sure the

:51:47. > :51:52.speed's there car anyway. You've got from turn two through to

:51:53. > :51:56.flat-out turn three, and the uphill drag to turn four, then pure

:51:57. > :51:59.acceleration out of turn four. It's that middle sector which is all

:52:00. > :52:03.those fast, sweeping bends, which is classic Red Bull country, really,

:52:04. > :52:06.isn't it? High down-force. They've been fantastic in the past. They

:52:07. > :52:11.look to be very, very good right now. But also, if you've got

:52:12. > :52:14.stability and you've got a balanced front to the car, and down-force,

:52:15. > :52:17.you make the tyre work, but you can also keep the tyre, you can feel the

:52:18. > :52:20.tyre, you're not using the tyre to get the lap time. You're using the

:52:21. > :52:23.down-force to get the lap time. All but five cars are in the pits at the

:52:24. > :52:35.moment. Huge plumes of brake dust come out

:52:36. > :52:39.of the front wheels of Jenson Button's car as he puts on the

:52:40. > :52:45.brakes to slow that McLaren down from 195 miles an hour down to just

:52:46. > :52:49.50 miles an hour into turn one. Just over 100m of braking to shed all

:52:50. > :52:55.that speed. That's one of the miracles of a modern Formula 1 car.

:52:56. > :52:59.The brake dust coming out is a by-product of that. Button is on the

:53:00. > :53:04.medium tyre. He's on a run at the moment. This is where we're getting

:53:05. > :53:08.into simulation of the early part of Grand Prix. They do the qualifying

:53:09. > :53:13.simulation - put a hard lap through those tyres on low-ish fuel - come

:53:14. > :53:18.in, refuel, and then simulate. In some cases, simulate the opening

:53:19. > :53:23.part of the Grand Prix, carrying 100kg of fuel. Some teams prefer to

:53:24. > :53:26.simulate the middle phase of the Grand Prix, carrying 60kg to 65kg of

:53:27. > :53:29.fuel, to get a baseline understanding that way. Jenson

:53:30. > :53:34.Button's car looks nice and hooked up OK. He's now on a longer run.

:53:35. > :53:42.He's driving as you would expect Jenson to drive it. He's driving it

:53:43. > :53:45.with an element of finesse. That's what held him in good stead in

:53:46. > :53:51.Melbourne - where he qualified was due to the yellow flag caused by

:53:52. > :53:55.Raikkonen and missing the cut to go into Q3. To come back and to be just

:53:56. > :53:59.a few seconds behind his team-mate was a fantastic performance in the

:54:00. > :54:02.race. He uses his brain. This is a thinking category now. He definitely

:54:03. > :54:06.does that. Could be a good year for Jenson Button. He said, in some

:54:07. > :54:10.ways, he was quite glad he didn't end up on the podium in Australia

:54:11. > :54:13.and have to do interviews with Alan Jones, et cetera, on the podium,

:54:14. > :54:17.because it was such an emotional weekend for him. First Grand Prix -

:54:18. > :54:22.in fact, the first race meeting - since he was a tiny kid - where his

:54:23. > :54:26.father John wasn't at his side. John tragically passed away over the

:54:27. > :54:30.Christmas break with a heart attack, a very sudden heart attack.

:54:31. > :54:33.Much-loved and much-missed by everybody in Formula 1. Just how

:54:34. > :54:36.emotional and difficult it was for Jenson really only became clear

:54:37. > :54:39.after the weekend, when he looked back on it with a huge sigh and

:54:40. > :54:45.thought, "Thank goodness that's over." Now he can move forward and

:54:46. > :54:52.try and work as best he can without his dad.

:54:53. > :55:01.Jan Magnussen watching how well his son is doing now. The McLaren team

:55:02. > :55:05.has more direction this year, I think. Jenson was a lot more, I

:55:06. > :55:07.would say, aggressive with his comments over this weekend about

:55:08. > :55:11.what they can achieve. They think they can win a race. They think they

:55:12. > :55:15.can take the fight to Mercedes. Right now, I have to say, I don't

:55:16. > :55:20.doubt they'll be able to do that at some point. It could be this

:55:21. > :55:23.weekend. Who knows? Definitely it's a more positive McLaren than we've

:55:24. > :55:37.had before. Explain for us then, Allan, how it comes to be that

:55:38. > :55:44.Mercedes had a they look strong in practice, and in the simulation

:55:45. > :55:48.runs, Rosberg is fastest, and then just three-one -- three

:55:49. > :55:54.one-hundredths of a second slower, Ferrari, then Red Bull, then

:55:55. > :55:58.Hamilton almost immediately behind them. I think Mercedes are probably

:55:59. > :56:02.still in the prime seat. They're still a little bit ahead. If Lewis

:56:03. > :56:07.Hamilton had hooked up his lap, his middle sector - sorry, his first

:56:08. > :56:10.sector - then he would have been fastest overall. But the other teams

:56:11. > :56:14.- Ferrari, for example - feel the circuit is a little bit more tuned

:56:15. > :56:18.to their car. Certainly we can see that Vettel has done more laps on

:56:19. > :56:21.Friday than he did down in Melbourne. Therefore, that's

:56:22. > :56:27.something there. It's all just very, very close at the top. But we can be

:56:28. > :56:32.running different fuel loads. 10kg of fuel is about 3. 5 tenths of a

:56:33. > :56:39.second per lap. If you're a little bit out, then that can make a big

:56:40. > :56:42.lap time difference. Bianchi bank comes in, and jengy's -- Jenny's

:56:43. > :56:46.there. Max Chilton had a spin and they brought the car back - it took

:56:47. > :56:49.them a while to recover it. As you can see, Max Chilton getting pushed

:56:50. > :56:52.back into his garage. He went home in between the two races between

:56:53. > :56:57.Australia and Malaysia. A lot of people decided to stay out. He did

:56:58. > :57:03.some hot-weather training in one of the facilities at St Margaret's

:57:04. > :57:09.College in Twickenham, where he's been practising over the winter to

:57:10. > :57:14.get ready for this race and what he'll need. Sorry, I got so used to

:57:15. > :57:18.the idea that Bianchi was the only Marussia out there, I didn't realise

:57:19. > :57:19.it was Chilton coming into the pits again. Good work by the Marussia

:57:20. > :57:42.team - he's back out there again. In Australia, Toro Rosso got cars in

:57:43. > :57:45.the top ten in both qualifying and the race. That's something they

:57:46. > :57:50.didn't manage to do in the whole of the 2013 season. Already, Toro Rosso

:57:51. > :57:54.would appear to be on reasonable form this season, taking advantage,

:57:55. > :57:57.of course, in Melbourne of the problems of other - not least

:57:58. > :58:00.Vettel, who had difficulties in qualifying. Raikkonen, Button as

:58:01. > :58:04.well. Still, you have to take your opportunities when they come. In

:58:05. > :58:08.many ways, Toro Rosso are possibly the best benchmark, really, for the

:58:09. > :58:12.Renault power unit teams, aren't they? You know where you stand with

:58:13. > :58:16.Toro Rosso. As they progress, it gibs you an indication of how the

:58:17. > :58:19.Renault unit is progressing. Certainly in terms of performance.

:58:20. > :58:27.If you look at Melbourne, they were actually the team that did the most

:58:28. > :58:32.laps out of anyone all weekend. Therefore they've been able to get

:58:33. > :58:35.that Renault power-plant package system to be reliable. That's

:58:36. > :58:39.something that, if you look a bit further down at lotus, they're

:58:40. > :58:42.struggling at the moment to get out of the pits, never mind reliable

:58:43. > :58:46.enough to do a session. Therefore it can be done, clearly, because Toro

:58:47. > :58:53.Rosso have been able to achieve it. How do you explain KTRM going so

:58:54. > :58:56.well in pre-season testing with the Renault power unit, and having so

:58:57. > :58:59.many problems with racing? Kobayashi hasn't taken any part in the session

:59:00. > :59:02.so far. Ericsson's done 14 laps, which is something. I've got no

:59:03. > :59:07.idea, to be honest with you. I don't think, looking at KTRM this morning,

:59:08. > :59:11.they've got much of an idea. One car will run one day, and one car will

:59:12. > :59:16.run the next. They don't really know how to get both cars out there. It

:59:17. > :59:19.just seems to be a case of - it's so early in the development of this

:59:20. > :59:27.technology that some of the teams who have been working on it for a

:59:28. > :59:33.long period of time are a few steps ahead. This team, Mercedes, has been

:59:34. > :59:36.working on it the. They realise the car was fast last year. But they

:59:37. > :59:39.didn't have the speed or the reliability or didn't have the

:59:40. > :59:43.capability to keep their rear tyre in shape to win races. So they

:59:44. > :59:46.switched very early to try to make sure that they were absolutely

:59:47. > :59:51.rocking and roaling for 2014. They definitely have done it so far. They

:59:52. > :59:54.certainly have. They've had a team on the 2014 chassis and engine

:59:55. > :59:59.integration package - that was essentially what Jeff Willis was

:00:00. > :00:03.brought in to do, former BAR technical director that moved onto

:00:04. > :00:10.Red Bull. He's back at brackly, the headquarters of that team. He is

:00:11. > :00:13.very much where he was - in charge of this integration of the power

:00:14. > :00:16.unit and the chassis. It's been a long, long time in the development.

:00:17. > :00:20.They had a whole crew specifically working on it. As did other teams,

:00:21. > :00:25.but you get the impression Mercedes perhaps invested more and for

:00:26. > :00:30.longer, seeing this 2014 season as an opportunity with these hybrid,

:00:31. > :00:34.turbo power units coming in that harvest a lot of energy from

:00:35. > :00:39.braking, store it as electricity, then reintroduce it back into the

:00:40. > :00:42.system - 160 horsepower - for 33 seconds a lap, is how much energy

:00:43. > :00:47.recovery there is going on, and regeneration going on. You've got a

:00:48. > :00:52.lot of experience with this, Allan, driving with Audi in Lamont mont and

:00:53. > :00:56.the world endurance championship. They've been onto this type of

:00:57. > :01:00.technology for five years and more. It's obviously, as you say, the

:01:01. > :01:05.future. What's it like to drive? How big a change is it for these drivers

:01:06. > :01:09.from the V8 normally aspirated? It changes where the power delivery is.

:01:10. > :01:12.It's right at the beginning, the first part of acceleration. It's

:01:13. > :01:15.torque. Therefore, when you touch a throttle, you don't retrospective

:01:16. > :01:18.the engine so much. When you touch the throttle, you've got

:01:19. > :01:22.instantaneous power. Basically, it makes it much more lively when

:01:23. > :01:24.you're accelerating out of the corners. That's what we saw in

:01:25. > :01:28.Melbourne, and it's what we're seeing here and we've heard on the

:01:29. > :01:33.radio from Kevin Magnussen - they're struggling to get the power down.

:01:34. > :01:37.That's coupled with the fact that they've got less aerodynamic drip.

:01:38. > :01:40.The bottom beam wing that has been taken away meant the floor worked.

:01:41. > :01:43.It worked generally at lower speeds, as well as high speeds. When you

:01:44. > :01:47.combine the two things together, you've got quite a lively car

:01:48. > :01:50.underneath you. We've also seen more mistakes from drivers than they have

:01:51. > :01:54.done in the past - sliding and having to work with the car, but

:01:55. > :01:58.also just running a bit wide. All of that makes for quite good racing, so

:01:59. > :02:02.far. I think we saw more overtaking in Melbourne than we had seen for a

:02:03. > :02:07.long, long time. Just over 30 minutes remaining in free practice

:02:08. > :02:12.two ahead of Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix from Sepang in Malaysia.

:02:13. > :02:17.Let's check in again with Tom Clarkson. James, contrasting

:02:18. > :02:21.fortunes at McLaren. Jenson Button's side of the garage very calm and

:02:22. > :02:24.quiet, preparing to go out on the hard tyre. For Kevin Magnussen, it's

:02:25. > :02:29.been a very difficult day, actually. The first session this morning - a

:02:30. > :02:32.sensor at the back of the car put the engine into what it called limp

:02:33. > :02:36.mode, because it thought it was overheating. That limited his

:02:37. > :02:41.mileage. Now there's lots of set-up changes going on on the front of the

:02:42. > :02:44.car. First of all, they did a portion bar change. Now, they're

:02:45. > :02:49.mucking around with the brakes. It's all to do with cooling, as far as I

:02:50. > :02:52.can make out. All sorts of problems. We heard him saying he can't get the

:02:53. > :02:57.power down on the radio. I think he's struggling to stop it, from

:02:58. > :03:01.what I can see here, as well. The cooling also affects air odynamics

:03:02. > :03:05.around the front-wheel area. The drum that covers up the disc and the

:03:06. > :03:09.caliper and the way the air is fed into it and the different sizes of

:03:10. > :03:12.cooling ducts not only affect braking performance, but the front

:03:13. > :03:17.grip quite a lot. You need to, again, as we were talking at the

:03:18. > :03:21.beginning, you need to get balance between performance, grip and

:03:22. > :03:28.reliability. Magnussen down in 12th at the moment - not at all

:03:29. > :03:31.representative - one or two seconds off the pace, and almost half a

:03:32. > :03:34.second slower than team-mate Jenson Button. Remember to keep your

:03:35. > :03:39.questions and views coming throughout the weekend using

:03:40. > :03:43.# # BBCF1, and check out the Facebook

:03:44. > :03:49.page as well. Damien has a question for Allan. What was your favourite

:03:50. > :03:54.Formula 1 engine? I think for me, it's got to be the first Formula 1

:03:55. > :03:59.engine I drove, which was 1989, the Honda V10, just because it was the

:04:00. > :04:04.first one. As a driver, you always want the most powerful engine.

:04:05. > :04:07.Doesn't matter what it is, if it's got six cylinders, eight cylinders,

:04:08. > :04:12.ten or 12. I've driven them all. Turboes, non-it urboes. You always

:04:13. > :04:16.want the one that gives you the best performance out of it. As much as we

:04:17. > :04:21.have a bit of a heart towards one thing, you tend to go with what the

:04:22. > :04:26.stopwatch says. Back when I started in Formula 1 in 1990, there was an

:04:27. > :04:30.Italian team called Life. They used to turn up for what was then

:04:31. > :04:34.pre-qualifying. I remember. Friday morning, before the weekend. We used

:04:35. > :04:38.to troop down to the garage to see if they could get this W12 engine

:04:39. > :04:42.started. Basically, some people were trying to qualify on pole, trying to

:04:43. > :04:46.win the race. An achievement for Life was to actually get this engine

:04:47. > :04:49.started. It was so complex, and such an ambitious thing, and they were

:04:50. > :04:52.completely under-funded. None of the mechanics had matching shirts - it

:04:53. > :04:56.was at that sort of level. Could they get this thing started? Once

:04:57. > :04:59.they did get it started, there was this enormous cheer from all kinds

:05:00. > :05:04.of different teams who'd gone down to see if they could get it going.

:05:05. > :05:07.The Life W12. I can't describe the noise to you, but imagine filling

:05:08. > :05:12.your dustbin. You only heard it once! ..full of nuts and bolts, and

:05:13. > :05:18.throwing it down the stairs. Something akin to that. Amanda says,

:05:19. > :05:25."You'll be pleased to hear it's raining here in the UK." Very

:05:26. > :05:28.pleased to hear that, Amanda. "if it rains in Sepang, how badly would

:05:29. > :05:35.that affect the drivability of the cars?" Surprisingly, with the extra

:05:36. > :05:39.torque they have now - and they've had one session - the first test was

:05:40. > :05:45.wet - they found that the drivability, as we listen to Lewis

:05:46. > :05:50.Hamilton's radio... You were nine-tenths faster than Nicoen the

:05:51. > :05:55.fast lap. Need to start on the fuel. Sounds like Lewis Hamilton was using

:05:56. > :06:00.too much fuel there. They have got a restriction of 100kg for the whole

:06:01. > :06:04.race, therefore the fuel target is very, very important. Target for

:06:05. > :06:09.zero - you are basely on the white line. -- right line. Don't go below

:06:10. > :06:13.it. What were we talking about before? How badly it would affect

:06:14. > :06:16.the drivability of the cars if it rains. With that extra torque,

:06:17. > :06:20.oddly, you can drive it more gently. You can pull a gear earlier, and use

:06:21. > :06:24.the torque to accelerate out of the corner, as opposed to having to use

:06:25. > :06:27.the revs to get power to come out. Therefore, I think the problem will

:06:28. > :06:31.not be the torque of the new power plants - the problems will come from

:06:32. > :06:35.the fact that, when it rains here, it's torrential downpour. You get it

:06:36. > :06:43.like a flooding. These cars are so close to the ground, it's

:06:44. > :06:52.effectively an aqua-plane. It becomes a surfboard.

:06:53. > :07:01.Turn one and four, everyone the lift-in. Rosberg there being told to

:07:02. > :07:03.brake later in a couple of the turns. "Lifting course" meaning he's

:07:04. > :07:08.lifting off not at the braking point, but before it, and letting

:07:09. > :07:12.the car roll into the corner. It's very easily mentally, with you're

:07:13. > :07:18.using to going flat and braking hard 100m into the corner, lift at, say,

:07:19. > :07:23.200m - and still brake at 100m, you're going a lot slower by the

:07:24. > :07:29.time you get to that 100m part. You've got to mentally brake at

:07:30. > :07:31.200m, then actually brake at 70m. It's not easy to retrain your brain

:07:32. > :07:39.in that way. It's amazing how much fuel you can

:07:40. > :07:43.save by lifting and coasting for, as you say, 100m or so into the

:07:44. > :07:48.corners. You'd think it would make the lap time slower - it doesn't,

:07:49. > :07:51.and it does save a disproportionate amount of fuel, relative. That is

:07:52. > :07:55.the calculation they're making at the moment. Particularly, obviously,

:07:56. > :07:58.you do it on the race runs, not in any other situation. It's something

:07:59. > :08:02.that they're simulating now, the early laps of the race. They're

:08:03. > :08:05.looking at what the fuel situation is going to be, seeing how hard they

:08:06. > :08:08.can push, when they can push, when they'll need to save fuel, if they

:08:09. > :08:12.need to save fuel, how they do it by lifting and coasting, by turning the

:08:13. > :08:16.engine down, turning the fuel flow, dare I say it, down - a hot topic in

:08:17. > :08:18.Formula 1 at the moment. That's what that conversation was all about.

:08:19. > :08:22.Also, the other thing is it's something you'll hear more and more

:08:23. > :08:25.of, if the drive -- of the driver being coached on the best way to do

:08:26. > :08:29.it. Engineers are back in the pits looking at the data. They're able to

:08:30. > :08:32.work out what the best way to do it is at different points on the

:08:33. > :08:35.circuit. They could maybe coach them along the way, depending on how good

:08:36. > :08:49.their fuel economy is. Nico Rosberg was getting guidance

:08:50. > :08:54.from his engineer there. Quite a few people getting in touch with us. Are

:08:55. > :08:57.the cars actually slower, or faster than they were last year? Certainly

:08:58. > :09:01.it would appear the lap times are down a little bit on last year's,

:09:02. > :09:06.but the straight-line speeds, Allan, in many cases, are higher. We're

:09:07. > :09:08.seeing 200 miles an hour from the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and from

:09:09. > :09:12.Magnussen. That's about five miles an hour faster than they were going

:09:13. > :09:15.here last year. Yeah, but we're very, very early in the development

:09:16. > :09:19.of this. You've got to remember, at the end of laest year, we had stable

:09:20. > :09:23.regulations for quite a long period of time. The designers had pretty

:09:24. > :09:26.much perfected everything. I think there'll be massive gains through

:09:27. > :09:33.the course of this season in terms of pure lap time. There'll be a lot

:09:34. > :09:37.of games in aerodynamics and in the integration of how to work with the

:09:38. > :10:09.new power plant with the engine, and the new hybrid system together.

:10:10. > :10:14.Given the difference between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari at

:10:15. > :10:17.the top being a few hundredths of a second, you would suspect Mercedes

:10:18. > :10:21.were carrying more fuel, given how much faster they were than everybody

:10:22. > :10:24.else in Australia. We'll only really find that out tomorrow when

:10:25. > :10:28.qualifying comes around - just what kind of margin the Mercedes have. If

:10:29. > :10:31.you've got a little bit of performance in the pocket, you'd

:10:32. > :10:36.prefer to keep it in the pocket. You also like to try and run the car in

:10:37. > :10:41.a worst possible scenario for the tyre and for the feel, knowing if

:10:42. > :10:45.you pump the fuel out, if you take fuel out, you've gained

:10:46. > :10:49.three-tenths. It's understandable if Mercedes are running heavier fuel

:10:50. > :10:56.loads than the others. 24 minutes remaining on the clock. Here's

:10:57. > :11:03.Vettel's radio. The tag on the option is high - try to preserve the

:11:04. > :11:07.tyres at the usual places. The degradation... Sebastian Vettel

:11:08. > :11:10.being told the degradation on the softer tyre, the medium tyre, is

:11:11. > :11:16.very, very high. That's to be expected, especially if you have a

:11:17. > :11:19.big difference between them. It is interesting - they've gone out on

:11:20. > :11:24.that tyre, and they are trying to push the envelope with that one,

:11:25. > :11:28.with the option. Sebastian Vettel's very knowledgeable at how to save

:11:29. > :11:33.tyres. In the year of really trying to conserve tyres - 2013 - they

:11:34. > :11:37.managed to get it off perfectly towards the end of the year.

:11:38. > :11:43.It was teamwork, really. Mark Webber tended to focus on the aerodynamics

:11:44. > :11:47.of the car - evaluating new parts, new wings, et cetera. He had

:11:48. > :11:51.tremendous sensitivity for the aerodynamics, which was very useful

:11:52. > :11:53.for Adrian Newey and his team to get really good data from their

:11:54. > :11:57.developments. Meanwhile, Vettel used to focus on the tyres and what they

:11:58. > :12:02.call the control systems on the car. His feel for tyres, for them going

:12:03. > :12:04.off, degradation, et cetera, really exceptional. That's part of the

:12:05. > :12:10.skills he carries forward. Not sure whether he's had to step up on the

:12:11. > :12:12.aero side, or whether Ricciardo has a good aerodynamic sensativity.

:12:13. > :12:15.That's certainly something that's been lost a bit with the departure

:12:16. > :12:18.of Mark Webber. Interestingly, though, Red Bull - obviously the two

:12:19. > :12:26.drivers are working together and in tandem. At the same time as Vettel

:12:27. > :12:30.is doing his run on the medium compound tyre, Ricciardo is doing a

:12:31. > :12:34.comparable programme using the harder compound tyre. They've got

:12:35. > :12:37.direct, correlative information. The two drivers very much working

:12:38. > :12:41.together as a team for Red Bull. Vettel's gone for the tyre that has

:12:42. > :12:45.got the more performance, if you can make it work. He's looking at the

:12:46. > :12:49.worst scenario, knowing that if it goes to the harder tyre, which he

:12:50. > :12:54.will have to do, obviously, in the race, then he's got a more known

:12:55. > :12:58.quantity If I was in the team, I would try to do that as well. Then I

:12:59. > :13:01.can maybe gain more than the other driver in that worst period of the

:13:02. > :13:06.race when you've got the big degradation from the medium.

:13:07. > :13:12.Vettel's last lap... Focus on the fuel consumption. Looks OK last lap.

:13:13. > :13:18.Remember to drink. How was the fuel that last lap? Fuel was good. That

:13:19. > :13:23.was green -. 02. Green,. 02. That is good. As we were talking about the

:13:24. > :13:28.driver being coached, Lewis Hamilton getting the information about his

:13:29. > :13:33.fuel - green. 02. Green means good, obviously, and red would mean bad.

:13:34. > :13:37.They're just talking about tiny little elements. You need to train

:13:38. > :13:41.yourself to work out to get the speed out of the car. In this long

:13:42. > :13:45.run, it's perfect time in free practice to be able to do that, when

:13:46. > :13:48.you get some rhythm. There's not so many cars on the circuit, and you

:13:49. > :13:51.get a rhythm to get the car rolling and floating. Then you're at one

:13:52. > :13:54.with it. This is something a lot of fans are concerned about - they're

:13:55. > :14:00.driving around, coasting around, basically, like taxidrivers, as the

:14:01. > :14:04.Ferrari president said. He warned the sport, "Be careful with this

:14:05. > :14:08.fuel-management business. We don't want Formula 1 drivers to be tooling

:14:09. > :14:14.around like taxidrivers." I have to say, he must have a very fast taxi

:14:15. > :14:18.if that's the case. I don't think it's that case right now. The

:14:19. > :14:20.drivers are having to work harder in the cockpit, been a different way to

:14:21. > :14:24.before. It's definitely in a different way than having to attack

:14:25. > :14:27.the corners in a very different way. Y. -- they're thinking about the

:14:28. > :14:31.race in a very different way, in some ways use different parts of

:14:32. > :14:36.their mind. It's not all about brawn attack, aggressive, fast laps every

:14:37. > :14:40.single one. I don't think we'll see those in the current time right now.

:14:41. > :14:45.But we will see fantastic racing, as we saw already in Melbourne. Just

:14:46. > :14:48.for your reference, in terms of lap time, compared to the other

:14:49. > :14:53.compounds, it looks quite good, actually. Now you are the fastest.

:14:54. > :14:57.That's Alonso being told that, actually, it looks pretty good in

:14:58. > :15:00.terms of the degradation on the Ferrari - actually coming to be one

:15:01. > :15:05.of the fastest. It's quite noticeable how the lap times of the

:15:06. > :15:11.others are dropping off. Vettel is in the high 1.44. His tyre

:15:12. > :15:15.performance has dropped off by about half a second in the last five laps

:15:16. > :15:21.or so. Looks like the Williams' performance has dropped off by

:15:22. > :15:26.perhaps even more than that. Massa is now in the mid-1.46s. Clearly

:15:27. > :15:29.there is tyre degradation here. The first time we've really seen it.

:15:30. > :15:34.Wasn't too much evidence of it in Melbourne. This circuit puts an

:15:35. > :15:38.awful lot more energy through the tyres. The white side-wall tyre, the

:15:39. > :15:41.medium compound tyre, is the same tyre that was used in Australia.

:15:42. > :15:47.There, it was the harder of the two. Here, it's the softer of the two. In

:15:48. > :15:53.Australia, it was pretty bulletproof, albeit not easy to warm

:15:54. > :15:56.up. Here, it looks like it is giving a bit of degradation. It's

:15:57. > :16:00.definitely something to keep an eye on. Whoever can manage the fuel

:16:01. > :16:04.consumption and the tyre degradation will do well on Sunday. There was a

:16:05. > :16:08.first green chute of optimism, I would say there, from Ferrari from

:16:09. > :16:12.the engineer to Alonso, that there's something to be worked on here. Tom

:16:13. > :16:17.Clarkson? James, their sector times in first practice this morning were

:16:18. > :16:21.very good. I know the Ferrari engine is definitely feeling more upbeat

:16:22. > :16:24.about this race than they were in Melbourne two weeks ago. I wanted to

:16:25. > :16:28.feed into the commentary that the wind down here in pit lane is

:16:29. > :16:32.picking up a bit. We're getting a headwind, almost ten miles an hour

:16:33. > :16:37.now. That's going to be a tailwind into the last corner. It's worth

:16:38. > :16:41.checking to see if people are missing apexes going into that last

:16:42. > :16:46.corner as a result of the tailwind. Allan, with the cars being 50kg

:16:47. > :16:50.heavier this year, does that mean that they're less sensitive to wind

:16:51. > :16:55.than they might have been in the past? No, relative to sensitivity to

:16:56. > :16:58.the wind, I think the aerodynamics probably have a bigger effect than

:16:59. > :17:02.the weight. However, in the fast corners, the fast change of

:17:03. > :17:07.directions, that 50kg definitely means they're a bit lazier to turn

:17:08. > :17:10.left and right. Romain Grosjean is pulling off to the side of the

:17:11. > :17:15.circuit. It seems to be the common thing for him at this moment in time

:17:16. > :17:17.with Lotus. The weight itself is just more a case of the change of

:17:18. > :17:21.direction, and stopping and starting. For the wind, that's going

:17:22. > :17:25.to funnel down that start and finish all the time. What a difficult

:17:26. > :17:29.situation for the Lotus team. They've lost quite a few engineers

:17:30. > :17:33.over the last six months. They've had all sorts of problems over the

:17:34. > :17:36.winter. There's been all sorts of questions about cash flow and

:17:37. > :17:41.business viability, and they missed the first test, and they really are

:17:42. > :17:44.struggling here. For the second race in succession, Romain Grosjean -

:17:45. > :17:49.once again, as he did earlier on, has pulled over to the side of the

:17:50. > :17:54.road. He has managed to do 14 laps. His best is 1.42. 5, which is almost

:17:55. > :17:58.three seconds slower than the benchmark time. Team-mate Pastor

:17:59. > :18:02.Maldonado has not gone out at all in this afternoon's session. His car is

:18:03. > :18:06.in pieces in the garage. The body language of Grosjean, as you would

:18:07. > :18:09.be observing earlier, Allan, has gone from angry in Melbourne to

:18:10. > :18:14.almost resigned now. He's obviously very frustrated. This is a man that

:18:15. > :18:20.was potentially looking to maybe win races last year. Right now, he can't

:18:21. > :18:26.even see the chequered flag in any position, never mind up at the front

:18:27. > :18:29.of the race. I think the whole team is a bit dejected. You can see

:18:30. > :18:34.they've worked very, very hard, Lotus, and Reno, to make sure they

:18:35. > :18:37.had some reliability. Obviously it hasn't worked, with Maldonado

:18:38. > :18:41.struggling and not even coming out today, and Romain Grosjean finishing

:18:42. > :18:46.his day with 16 minutes to go. You have to say, with 14 laps, that's

:18:47. > :18:49.not exactly a fantastic session for them. He's certainly getting to know

:18:50. > :18:52.the corner workers, is Romain Grosjean. He's met quite a few of

:18:53. > :19:05.them already this weekend. Final comments from you, using

:19:06. > :19:09.#BBCF1. Andrew making a comment on the sound. "The music's good, but

:19:10. > :19:15.you need to ask the DJ to turn the sound up a bit." When you're here

:19:16. > :19:19.live, you hear the different audio tones and they are much louder, and

:19:20. > :19:23.you can hear the sort of deep growl of them, as opposed to the

:19:24. > :19:27.high-pitched scream. I think somebody said earlier on, it's a

:19:28. > :19:32.little bit like Marmite - you love it or hate it. Personally, I quite

:19:33. > :19:36.like it. Well, McLaren's managing director, stand-in CEO, in fact, is

:19:37. > :19:41.down in the garage talking to Jenny now. It's Johnathan Neil. I was just

:19:42. > :19:45.saying, has Johnathan's job title changed - he's now COO of the

:19:46. > :19:50.company for the moment. It's getting confusing about what your role is.

:19:51. > :19:54.But you know your role within the company. Absolutely. We're here to

:19:55. > :19:57.race and to win. Nothing changes with McLaren. We saw earlier than

:19:58. > :20:00.Kevin Magnussen was having a few issues this morning with the

:20:01. > :20:04.sensors. Has he managed to get that sorted out? He still seems to be

:20:05. > :20:09.having a shortened programme after the. This morning was a sensor issue

:20:10. > :20:12.in the back of the car. It switched the engine to the safety modes.

:20:13. > :20:16.We've got limited numbers of power trades this year. A number of things

:20:17. > :20:22.around them protect the car in case there's a problem. This one was a

:20:23. > :20:26.slightly enthusiastic sensor, shall we say. Kevin tried to lift and

:20:27. > :20:29.coast into the pit lane. We got that slightly wrong, and did the walk of

:20:30. > :20:33.shame to recover the car. But it was fine - no problems. There's a lot of

:20:34. > :20:37.talk about sensors. Yours isn't to do with fuel or anything like that,

:20:38. > :20:42.but what do you make of the current situation with regards to fuel-flow

:20:43. > :20:46.sensors and the amount of work your teams are having to do? Obviously

:20:47. > :20:49.it's captured the media attention and headlines with the controversial

:20:50. > :20:55.decision taken in Australia. But it's the same for us all. I think

:20:56. > :20:57.Formula 1 moving into an energy-constrained series is a

:20:58. > :21:02.really exciting thing for Formula 1 to do. I think the V6 technology and

:21:03. > :21:06.hybrid technology that goes with it is exciting. We've only done one

:21:07. > :21:09.race, remember, so it's very early days for this yet. People will take

:21:10. > :21:13.time to adapt to the change. It's the right thing to do for the

:21:14. > :21:16.business. Hybrid technology is an important thing for the engine

:21:17. > :21:20.manufacturers - they're an important part of Formula 1. There's a lot of

:21:21. > :21:24.challenges for the engineers out there as well. There's lots to play

:21:25. > :21:28.for, but it's very early days. Have you had any problems with your

:21:29. > :21:33.fuel-flow sensors? We've all had problems with the cars. 12 days of

:21:34. > :21:38.testing. 13,500 parts in a car. A short time to mark it. 3. 5 months

:21:39. > :21:44.to design and build a car. 12 days of testing with an all-new power

:21:45. > :21:50.train. 50% more radiator area. Sensors glor all over the car. It's

:21:51. > :21:56.a huge systems integration task. I wouldn't pick fuel-flow sensor as

:21:57. > :22:00.being anything else different from the car. Those who pick up the

:22:01. > :22:02.technology quickly will win. I was speaking to somebody in the break

:22:03. > :22:05.between the two sessions. They said there are a limited number of

:22:06. > :22:09.sensors around because production has been so rushed and hurried to

:22:10. > :22:12.get them in the state that you need them. I think there's a bit of a

:22:13. > :22:16.drama going on about this. Sometimes you've got to run what you've bring

:22:17. > :22:21.and get on with it, haven't you? Definitely a Ron kind of thing to

:22:22. > :22:24.say as well. I don't mean in the nastier sense of the word, but the

:22:25. > :22:27.nicer sense. This team is definitely moving forward. The momentum behind

:22:28. > :22:31.it is very strong now, isn't it? It is. This team is incredibly focused.

:22:32. > :22:35.It's great havingerratic and the team with us as well. We're not here

:22:36. > :22:39.to save Formula 1 from itself. We're just here to race. That's what we'll

:22:40. > :22:45.do. We'll get on with it. All right. Thank you very much, Johnathan.

:22:46. > :22:49.Johnathan Nealee there, the chief operating officer, and filling that

:22:50. > :22:53.COO role that Ron Dennis is looking for someone to occupy on a permanent

:22:54. > :23:01.basis. Neale is a candidate, but they're looking at other people as

:23:02. > :23:05.well. Erik Bouyat is essentially the team principal. Jenny was mentioning

:23:06. > :23:11.the availability of these fuel-flow sensors, an essential part of

:23:12. > :23:15.Formula 1 this year. I did a bit of research. They cost $4, -- ?4,500

:23:16. > :23:21.each. They're about the size of a smartphone, or slightly smaller, and

:23:22. > :23:26.measure the flow rate of the fuel going into the inIen. It's critical

:23:27. > :23:30.- as it was explained to me, if you're running 0. 5% more than you

:23:31. > :23:34.should be doing, that's about a tenth of a second.

:23:35. > :23:40.Basically, they limit the maximum amount of flow of fuel.

:23:41. > :23:44.Performance-wise, that's when you have a wide-open throttle. You're

:23:45. > :23:49.not wide-open throttle through the corners. It's really the high

:23:50. > :23:50.retrospectives at the end of the straight where the performance

:23:51. > :23:54.benefits. They certainly have created a lot of talking points, not

:23:55. > :23:59.just through the whole Melbourne weekend, but also in the testing and

:24:00. > :24:04.coming up to it, because there was a lot of adaptions to get these new

:24:05. > :24:08.systems working. These are placed inside the fuel tank itself.

:24:09. > :24:11.Therefore, they're not an accessible part where, say for example, you've

:24:12. > :24:16.got a problem and switch it off and get another one and put it back in.

:24:17. > :24:21.You do that, but it takes time to achieve it. The front left is off,

:24:22. > :24:27.it's wobbling. I'm going to take it steady and get the car back. A

:24:28. > :24:30.message from Max Chilton - the front left's a bit wobbly, which means -

:24:31. > :24:36.he's coming very slowly back to the pits. Not exactly sure why.

:24:37. > :24:39.Visually, you can't see anything directly on the camera, but

:24:40. > :24:44.obviously it is something very much there. Ten minutes remaining in this

:24:45. > :25:01.session, the second practice session of the Malaysia Grand Prix weekend.

:25:02. > :25:07.The drivers are mostly doing race simulation long runs at the moment.

:25:08. > :25:12.The Red Bull is looking good, I have to say. It's very consistent.

:25:13. > :25:16.Hamilton getting reasonable returns as well. But I've got my eye on

:25:17. > :25:20.Vettel and Red Bull. They don't look too bad at all here, from what I can

:25:21. > :25:24.see. Pretty consistent. The Williams doesn't look too bad either - that's

:25:25. > :25:28.another car that seems to be banging in the lap times and staying

:25:29. > :25:32.relatively consistent too. Difficult to say whether Williams are ahead of

:25:33. > :25:36.McLaren thiswalk. They were certainly - should have been ahead

:25:37. > :25:41.of them in Australia. Great performances by Magnussen and

:25:42. > :25:45.Button. Tactically by Button, and in pure performance and opportunism by

:25:46. > :25:48.Magnussen - both of them ending up with podium positions after

:25:49. > :25:52.Ricciardo was disqualified. I think Valtteri Bottas would be the first

:25:53. > :25:56.to put his hand up and say he was on target for a podium until he hit the

:25:57. > :26:00.wall early in the Grand Prix. I think that's the result that got

:26:01. > :26:04.away in many ways for the Williams team. Can they put it right here

:26:05. > :26:08.this weekend? He said yesterday he thought he would be - he was hoping

:26:09. > :26:12.he would challenge for a podium once again. Ricciardo said the same thing

:26:13. > :26:16.yesterday. Judging from Vettel's pace this afternoon, I think that

:26:17. > :26:19.looks like a realistic prospect. The Ferraris also look a bit more potent

:26:20. > :26:24.here. We're starting to see more of what Ferrari can do. Raikkonen

:26:25. > :26:28.second-fastest in the qualifying simulation, and those very positive

:26:29. > :26:31.words from Alonso's engineer - that the tyre degradation numbers on the

:26:32. > :26:35.Ferrari, on the longer run, are starting to look quite promising for

:26:36. > :26:38.them. You get a sense there's optimism within the Ferrari camp,

:26:39. > :26:43.Allan. You certainly do. This circuit, historically, has treated

:26:44. > :26:47.them very well in the past. I think they've got a bit more of a feel for

:26:48. > :26:51.the car around here. We saw some speed out of them when we were in

:26:52. > :26:55.Melbourne, but not in race trim. Definitely for Kimi Raikkonen. He

:26:56. > :26:58.was out of sorts in Melbourne. I think he's starting to get his feet

:26:59. > :27:04.a little bit more under the table. That table well and truly was

:27:05. > :27:07.Alonso's table, with Felipe Massa, when they were team-mates.

:27:08. > :27:10.Therefore, that team is generally going to build forward, I think.

:27:11. > :27:18.Eight minutes to go in the session. We're looking at some long-run

:27:19. > :27:21.analysis done for us. It's interesting that Hamilton's quickly

:27:22. > :27:27.got down to a good pace on the harder tyre. He's just moved over

:27:28. > :27:32.about three or four laps ago. He's lapping in the mid-1.44s. The medium

:27:33. > :27:35.tyre seems to be going off relatively quickly. Interesting for

:27:36. > :27:39.the strategy guys to look at that and see what's the best way of doing

:27:40. > :27:44.this Grand Prix on Sunday. We were expecting the hard tyre to be slower

:27:45. > :27:47.on a single lap. It looks to be possibly more durable. If it can get

:27:48. > :27:55.a performance like that fairly early on in the run, it should be good.

:27:56. > :27:59.It's sliding around a lot. The rear tyre's in bad shape. Kimi

:28:00. > :28:08.Raikkonen's talking about that. He started out on a used medium tyre.

:28:09. > :28:13.He's done approximately 10 or 12 laps on that particular tyre. He's

:28:14. > :28:16.coming into the pits. By contrast - he's had seven-tenths of a drop-off.

:28:17. > :28:24.By contrast, Sebastian Vettel started on a new medium, doing 44. 2

:28:25. > :28:29.on a first lap. His 12th lap was 45. 1. The Red Bull keeping the softer

:28:30. > :28:45.tyre much better than Kimi It's the left front tyre that

:28:46. > :28:51.typically takes the hardest beating in Sepang, due to long left-handers

:28:52. > :28:56.that run with that tyre. You quite often see flat spots on that left

:28:57. > :28:59.front tyre as well. Not much fun being a left front tyre around this

:29:00. > :29:32.place. Chilton lost a lot of the session

:29:33. > :29:35.earlier on after stopping on the circuit - he's out at the moment, in

:29:36. > :29:40.the pits, with a problem on the front left of the car. Bianchi has

:29:41. > :29:45.done 25 laps. Ericsson has managed 30 laps in this session, which is

:29:46. > :29:50.just behind Bottas and Hulkenberg as the most that anybody's done in the

:29:51. > :29:53.session. Of course, Kobayashi and Maldonado - the KTRM and the lotus -

:29:54. > :30:19.not managing to do any laps at all. The mechanics are very, very good

:30:20. > :30:27.guys - the team are an extremely tight-knit little team. To not have

:30:28. > :30:32.any sort of benefits for... The race is good, considering the length of

:30:33. > :30:38.your stint. I'd like to come in to push the prods, please. So finish

:30:39. > :30:41.this lap. Rocky talking, the engineer of Sebastian Vettel, the

:30:42. > :30:47.Red Bull talking to him. "How's your pace?" The pace is very, very good.

:30:48. > :30:51.Very good. They'd been running extremely strongly on the tyre. He's

:30:52. > :30:55.about 13-14 laps into it. In total time drop-off, it's about 1. 5

:30:56. > :30:58.seconds now. It's only been the last couple of laps that it's got down to

:30:59. > :31:02.that. The Red Bull looks to be pretty well hooked up in terms of

:31:03. > :31:06.the car balance and the way that they're able to get lap times.

:31:07. > :31:10.Certainly does. They look to be a contender here. Challenging for a

:31:11. > :31:14.podium in Australia. Ricciardo getting that second place before he

:31:15. > :31:19.was disqualified. Hamilton on long run on the hard. Very consistent in

:31:20. > :31:23.the mid-1. 44s. That's a good pace to be getting out of that hard tyre.

:31:24. > :31:26.I think everybody will be learning - the crucial thing here, Allan, is

:31:27. > :31:31.first of all the conditions now are not the same as they will be on

:31:32. > :31:36.Sunday. The race starts at 4.00 and it's now 3.20, towards the end of

:31:37. > :31:39.the session. It's not comparable. Secondly, they're not really

:31:40. > :31:45.learning enough during the session, because they haven't got enough laps

:31:46. > :31:47.to do so - exactly what the tyres are doing. Although they're learning

:31:48. > :31:51.something, what will make the difference on Sunday will be the

:31:52. > :31:56.ability of their clever people back in the factory and here at the track

:31:57. > :32:00.to model the tyre performance and to extrapolate what they think is going

:32:01. > :32:04.to be -- it's go to be like. For the next lap, try to down-shift early.

:32:05. > :32:08.Try to down-shift early on the next lap. Down-shift early. That's

:32:09. > :32:13.Ricciardo being told to down-shift earl a e, just finetuning his

:32:14. > :32:17.driving style. We saw it in Australia, with Ferrari. They

:32:18. > :32:21.underestimated how far they could go in the final stint, pitted too late,

:32:22. > :32:25.and lost a place to Button as a result. I think, as well, you're

:32:26. > :32:29.never in a perfect scenario. It's a race weekend. The track's evolving

:32:30. > :32:37.and changing so, so quickly, especially here with the high

:32:38. > :32:40.temperatures. You've got to monitor and follow the track evolution and

:32:41. > :32:44.the speed of the circuit and how it impacts on the balance of your car.

:32:45. > :32:47.From that point of view, then you can try to think forward. When you

:32:48. > :32:52.say about the clever people - they're trying to look into the

:32:53. > :32:56.future. The experienced ones that have been to these races before that

:32:57. > :33:01.knows which way the wind blows and which way the rain comes from, tend

:33:02. > :33:06.to get it right more often than not. That's why you've got people like

:33:07. > :33:10.Pat Simmons at Williams - there's a big, big lockup coming into the pit

:33:11. > :33:14.lane by Kevin Magnussen. He's got to get down to that speed-lane limit at

:33:15. > :33:18.that point, or he gets a financial penalty. Nobody likes that. It's the

:33:19. > :33:21.experience that really counts in these type of places and these types

:33:22. > :33:38.of races. I don't think Kevin Magnussen will

:33:39. > :33:42.get much more meaningful running. Vettel's got back out again. He'll

:33:43. > :33:45.probably get a couple of laps in on that harder-compound tyre, just to

:33:46. > :33:50.get a bit of a feel for it at this stage. I have to say, that run he's

:33:51. > :33:55.just done - the length of it and the performance of it on the softer of

:33:56. > :33:58.the two tyres, the medium-compound tyre for Sebastian Vettel - look

:33:59. > :34:02.very promising indeed. I think Red Bull will have a bit of optimism.

:34:03. > :34:06.They've been, from their point of view, relatively reliable today, I

:34:07. > :34:11.think. Clearly, they're quick. Clearly they are. We still have to

:34:12. > :34:15.have that caveat in there about the fuel weight inside the cars. But I'd

:34:16. > :34:19.have said it's tight at the front. If you look at the fastest, all the

:34:20. > :34:24.way from first position, which was Rosberg, down to Hulkenberg, who's

:34:25. > :34:30.in tenth place, is seven-tenths of a second. It's just nip and tuck.

:34:31. > :34:34.We're just watching the Ferrari and a line comparison coming into the

:34:35. > :34:37.hairpin. I thought the two of them could be racing there for a second,

:34:38. > :34:40.but it's a line comparison. You can look at different lines between

:34:41. > :34:44.Raikkonen and Vettel. Vettel is on the left-hand side there. What

:34:45. > :34:47.Vettel's doing, he's got the front grip to turn the car. When he's

:34:48. > :34:52.accelerating, he's trying to put that torque onto the ground as he

:34:53. > :34:56.looks to be driving across the grass now. Is that because he's in

:34:57. > :35:02.trouble? I think he's run around the outside of a run-off area. The car

:35:03. > :35:08.seems to be under-powered at the moment. He looks to be rejoining the

:35:09. > :35:12.racetrack. A little excursion for the Red Bull driver. We were just

:35:13. > :35:19.saying how good their reliability has been. That line compare pairson

:35:20. > :35:23.was very interesting. It showed the turning comparability. Chequered

:35:24. > :35:27.flag is out. Session is over. Anyone on a lap will be allowed to complete

:35:28. > :35:33.it and the time will count. The Front grip of the Red Bull turned

:35:34. > :35:39.the car... Yep, just tripping the gravel. I'll just cruise back

:35:40. > :35:42.slowly. That was definitely just a quick trip through the gravel -

:35:43. > :35:46.harmless one. Initially, not sure whether it was a technical problem,

:35:47. > :35:51.but as he said - the thing was, the Red Bull was able to the power down

:35:52. > :35:54.straightaway with both the rear wheels equally balanced and

:35:55. > :35:58.accelerating, not loading up their right-hand side tyre. For me, it's

:35:59. > :36:02.very close. Very close in pure performance, I have to say. But

:36:03. > :36:06.also, it's very close when you actually get down to the long runs.

:36:07. > :36:08.Vettel and Red Bull are looking a lot stronger than they did in

:36:09. > :36:12.Melbourne. They certainly are. This has been a fairly happy hunting

:36:13. > :36:16.ground for them. Vettel three times a winner of this Grand Prix. Of

:36:17. > :36:20.course, last year, rather controversially, taking that win

:36:21. > :36:23.away in the closing stages from his team-mate, Mark Webber, who thought

:36:24. > :36:27.that they were under team orders - what he called multi-21, the

:36:28. > :36:31.infamous instruction to them, meaning "Turn everything down and

:36:32. > :36:35.coast home, keep your positions." Vettel ignored that, took the

:36:36. > :36:39.victory, giving him his third win. If he wins again here this weekend,

:36:40. > :36:44.he'll be the only man in Formula 1 to win four times in the Malaysian

:36:45. > :36:47.Grand Prix. Most drivers then coming back into the pits.

:36:48. > :36:51.This has been a fairly interesting session, and quite revealing as

:36:52. > :36:53.well. Rosberg pulls off his balaclava. He is the fastest man on

:36:54. > :37:28.the track here this afternoon. We're running out of time, Allan.

:37:29. > :37:31.Just give us your final thoughts on the session. Very close, very

:37:32. > :37:35.competitive, and there's going to be a lot of long-run data for us to

:37:36. > :37:39.search through tonight. This is not a foregone conclusion. The one thing

:37:40. > :37:43.we do not know is how much fuel that Mercedes has got, or how much lap

:37:44. > :37:46.time in the pocket. They do look very good. But the competition's

:37:47. > :37:49.coming very, very quickly behind them. It certainly seems that way.

:37:50. > :37:54.Mercedes had a big margin in Australia. It's a very small margin

:37:55. > :38:00.- four one-hundredths of a second ahead of the Ferrari of Raikkonen,

:38:01. > :38:03.and seven one-hunths ahead of the Red Bull of Vettel, who looked very

:38:04. > :38:06.strong on the long runs. An intriguing picture emerging from the

:38:07. > :38:09.second free practice session from the Malaysian Grand Prix. What will

:38:10. > :38:13.tomorrow bring with the free practice and the qualifying? Time

:38:14. > :38:17.will tell. It's been another strong day for Mercedes, but very

:38:18. > :38:21.promising, too, for Sebastian Vettel and for Kimi Raikkonen. Tough times,

:38:22. > :38:26.though, for Lotus. In fact, many of their guys have spent most of free

:38:27. > :38:29.practice two trying to find a snake which has been lurking behind those

:38:30. > :38:35.bushes behind me, which begs the question why I'm standing here! A

:38:36. > :38:37.long night for those guys. Well done for you, sticking through free

:38:38. > :38:40.practice one and two. Hopefully you'll do the same for free practice

:38:41. > :38:48.three: You can see Mark Webber's first

:38:49. > :38:52.television feature for the BBC. We catch up with Valtteri Bottas and

:38:53. > :38:55.Kevin Magnussen. I'll be back tonight with Inside F1 on the BBC

:38:56. > :38:59.News Channel. Thank you very much for your company

:39:00. > :39:03.throughout the night. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye.