Lewis Hamilton broke Mark Webber's dominance of free practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend by topping the final session on Saturday morning.
Webber was on top during both sessions on Friday, but Hamilton pipped him by 0.290 seconds with a soft-tyre dress rehearsal ahead of qualifying. But while it looks closer than expected at the front there is still the possibility that Red Bull was running heavier fuel and its best is yet to come.
Indeed, Australia's race winner Sebastian Vettel was just fifth fastest and 0.835 seconds off Hamilton's time. He encountered traffic as he set out on his soft tyres so completed a couple of slow laps before pumping in his final time at the last minute. He was behind Jenson Button in third and Nick Heidfeld in fourth, who appears much more comfortable at the wheel of his Renault in the heat of Sepang than he was on his debut with the team in Australia.
Ferrari is still off the pace with Fernando Alonso only just getting within a second of Hamilton's best in sixth. On Friday he all but wrote off the weekend saying the car was not capable of challenging for pole position or the win and his times on Saturday morning appeared to back that up.
The second Renault of Vitaly Petrov was seventh and also within a second of Hamilton, while Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari was a further 0.4 seconds off the pace in eighth. Kamui Kobayashi and Michael Schumacher rounded out the top ten, both within two seconds of the fastest time.
The midfield appears to be shaping up in much the same way as it did in Melbourne only with the addition of Lotus at the tail end after Heikki Kovalainen got within 0.4 seconds of Paul di Resta's best time. Both Lotuses were over a second clear of the Virgins, which in turn were nearly two seconds clear of the HRTs that may well struggle to qualify.
Overall the times point towards a competitive qualifying session where the top 10 drivers will also be faced with the dilemma of which tyres to use. They have to start the race on the same set they registered their fastest lap with, but in the heat of Malaysia the faster soft tyre is dropping off in pace after 10 laps. Choosing the harder tyre would allow drivers to go longer into the race and gain track position in the opening stint, albeit at a cost of one-lap performance in Q3.
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