SEPANG: Mercedes underlined their superiority in the new Formula One season as first Lewis Hamilton, and then Nico Rosberg led the timings in the Malaysian Grand Prix practice sessions on Friday.
Hamilton topped the first session with Rosberg, winner of the season-opener in Australia, coming third. Later, Rosberg took control in the final run-out.
“The conditions were crazy out there. In the extremely warm temperatures, it is a huge challenge to get everything right,” said championship leader Rosberg.
“The quickest teams are closer in timings together in comparison to Australia, so we still have work to do overnight to improve our level of performance.”
While Friday’s practice has little bearing on the race weekend, Mercedes will be pleased to have extended the dominance they showed in Australia.
Rosberg hit the front about a third of the way into the 90-minute run and he was later joined by Hamilton at the top of the timesheets, as Mercedes showed their superior adaptation to this year’s vast technical changes.
Rosberg’s time of one minute 39.909 seconds was three hundredths ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with world champion Sebastian Vettel improving to within six hundredths for the third spot. The top 11 drivers were all within one second of each other.
Hamilton, who veered off the track in both outings, was fourth in the second session ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Williams’ Felipe Massa, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Jenson Button of McLaren.
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