Five days after a spectacular Australian Grand Prix, the engines rumbled again for the Friday practice session at the Sepang circuit for the Malaysian GP. Many questions are expected to be answered this weekend, such as whether Australia was a one-off or can Red Bull be reliable? Will we have another downpour like last year, albeit a little less rain will be in everybody’s good books? And then there are inter-team rivalries already looking to heat up.

Lewis Hamilton was on top of the timesheets in both sessions on Friday and one can say he will be hungry for a lot more after whatever happened last weekend. Getting his car impounded wasn’t the ideal way to start off things and then the super race he drove not really fetching him the deserved rewards means he will be up for it. Jenson Button was third in the morning session and fourth in the afternoon but will do well to watch out for his team-mate this Sunday.

The McLarens will be expected to run things around their way in Sepang and that is primarily down to the aerodynamic advantage they have got. It is called the F-duct as we have come to know it and on the start-stop straight as well as the back-straight it will give both its British drivers that extra bit of speed. A good reflection was seen at the speed-traps with Hamilton clocking in 303 km/hr, a good six clicks quicker than Vitaly Petrov’s Renault. Sauber are experimenting with their own interpretation of the same, like in Australia, but there is no saying if they will use it in the race.

Nico Rosberg was second in the morning session (full results) while Sebastien Vettel took that spot in the afternoon (full results). Rosberg’s team-mate Michael Schumacher will be hoping to step it up another notch this weekend especially after Mercedes motor sport boss Naubert Haug made some positive noises about him in the midweek. Vettel’s team-mate though had a bit of a problem with his engine and Red Bull’s prime concern this weekend will be to fight off any reliability glitches. The Ferraris spent their day evaluating tyre compounds just like the last two weekends and whilst looking solid, where they are placed in the pace grid will only be known on Saturday – especially with the Mercedes powered cars looking strong today.

For Indian F1 fans, Karun Chandhok finished 0.4 second ahead of his team mate Bruno Senna and that for a first time this season. So all in all a good work out there in what will be another ‘test session’ for the team this weekend.