Felipe Massa headed a Ferrari 1-2 in Friday’s first practice at Sepang – but more problems for team-mate Kimi Raikkonen highlighted the Italian team’s current vulnerability.
Massa dominated the latter stages and finished more than a full second clear of Raikkonen, with the McLarens trailing in third and fifth places.
Heikki Kovalainen was marginally the faster of the Mercedes-powered drivers but neither had any answer for Ferrari’s early pace around the sinuous 3.4-mile track.
Nico Rosberg used the soft-compound Bridgestone tyres to set the fourth fastest time for Williams, vaulting up the timing charts near the end of the session after struggling with braking issues for much of the morning.
The Toro Rossos and Toyotas were the first to set timed laps, but it was McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who set the first real benchmark with a 1m37.265s shortly after the half-hour mark.
The Ferraris soon responded, Massa breaking into the 1m36s to take over the top spot before Raikkonen raised the bar to 1m36.459s.
A few minutes later, however – having completed only eight laps – the world champion was hitching a lift on a marshal’s scooter after pulling his Ferrari off the circuit with an apparent mechanical failure, although Ferrari later revealed that the problem had actually been a lack of fuel in the tank...
By that time the session had been red-flagged following a big accident for David Coulthard, which shattered the Red Bull RB4's front suspension.
The Scot ran wide across the asphalt run-off on the exit of the 160mph turn 12, but the real damage was done as he attempted to rejoin the circuit proper and was launched into the air by a lethal kerb on the inside of turn 13.
When the session resumed after a 10-minute stoppage, Massa took advantage of his team-mate’s absence to assume control.
He initially contented himself with a 1m36.283s lap before steadily upping the ante until he signed off with a stunning 1m35.392s.
Such was Ferrari’s superiority that Raikkonen remained second fastest despite missing the second half of the session.
That’s potentially an ominous sign for McLaren, although the Woking squad started in similarly low-key fashion in Australia before turning the tables on Ferrari in the afternoon.
Kovalainen made good progress through the session to emerge in third ahead of Rosberg and Hamilton, who had a minor off on his final run.
Renault appears to be in stronger shape with its baseline set-up than in Melbourne, with Fernando Alonso ending Friday morning sixth quickest ahead of team-mate Nelson Piquet.
The Brazilian rookie, who has raced at Sepang in the A1 GP series, looked much more assured than on his wayward debut – and the difference was reflected on the timesheet as he all but matched double world champion Alonso.
Robert Kubica only ventured out in the last 10 minutes of the session but still posted the eighth best time, three places ahead of BMW Sauber team-mate Nick Heidfeld.
Jenson Button took an encouraging ninth for Honda ahead of Toyota standard-bearer Jarno Trulli.
The circuit was slippery in the hot (31C) and sunny conditions and several drivers had off-course excursions or sideways moments, especially under braking for the final hairpin.
Sebastian Vettel spun his Toro Rosso there with two minutes remaining after what looked like a brake disc failure similar to that which threw his Red Bull stable-mate Mark Webber off the track in qualifying at Melbourne.
Webber himself fell victim to more misfortune, a spectacular cloud of smoke signalling an apparent engine failure and sidelining him from the final 20 minutes of running.
Malaysian GP free practice session 1 times
1. MASSA Ferrari 1m35.392s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m36.459s
3. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m36.556s
4. ROSBERG Williams 1m36.578s
5. HAMILTON McLaren 1m36.626s
6. ALONSO Renault 1m37.022s
7. PIQUET Renault 1m37.034s
8. KUBICA BMW 1m37.218s
9. BUTTON Honda 1m37.282s
10. TRULLI Toyota 1m37.540s
11. HEIDFELD BMW 1m37.649s
12. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m37.649s
13. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m37.776s
14. GLOCK Toyota 1m37.782s
15. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m38.219s
16. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m38.232s
17. WEBBER Red Bull 1m38.707s
18. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m38.798s
19. FISICHELLA Force India 1m39.046s
20. SATO Super Aguri 1m40.178s
21. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m40.351s
22. SUTIL Force India 1m41.269s