Round 02 - Malaysia: FP1, FP2 & FP3

Practice 1 - 1:47.932, 24th

Practice 1 was ruined for Vitaly who after setting just the one lap time (1:47.932) ended up in sand trap at turn 9. The reason for this is open to some conjecture, especially since Heidfeld suffered a similar issue a few laps previously, limping back to the pits with a completely locked left-front. The initial thought and speculation was that it was a brake failure, however, this was denied by Renault, who claimed that it was a faulty material batch.

"We quickly established that the two failed items had come from the same material batch and that nothing from this batch had run prior to today." - James Allison

"We suspect there is a materials issue because it is the same design, everything is the same except it was a new part." - Eric Boullier

There has been some additional rumours (and I stress, rumours) that in trying to re-create a Red Bull-esque flexible front wing, Renault fitted both cars with a new part but with an obviously disastrous outcome.

Anyway, this is what it looked like from onboard the car:

(Yes, the title of the video suggests FP2, but the incident happened in FP1)


Practice 2 - 1:39.267, 13th

Unfortunately, the incident from the morning session had a knock on effect into FP2, with Renault wanting to ensure the car was completely safe before sending the drivers back out. Eventually though both drivers managed to get some laps in, here are Vitaly's stints:

1:51.111
1:45.546
1:43.608
1:42.070
1:50.123
-Pit-
1:39.267
1:43.984
1:39.414
1:48.579
-Pit-
1:46.642
1:46.216
1:47.174
2:18.412
2:15.852

Here's what Vitaly had to say at the end of Friday:
“It wasn't the best day. The problem in the morning was quite a surprise and we decided not to run until late in the afternoon when we had understood things properly. When I did finally get out, the car felt fine, but the time we had was very limited and we didn't really manage to do any set-up work. As we expected, the degradation rates are very high here, especially for the soft tyres, but they definitely had more grip and were a couple of seconds quicker than the hard. However, tomorrow is a new day and I think we can still have a good weekend."


Practice 3 - 1:37.297, 7th

Vitaly proving his statement from the day before, tomorrow really is a new day with both Renaults finally showing some of the speed he displayed in Melbourne, Nick finishing the session in 4th and Vitaly 7th.

1:47.673
1:39.884
1:46.244
1:39.324
1:51.672
-Pit-
1:42.619
1:39.698
1:49.345
1:55.958
-Pit-
1:37.297
1:52.574
1:37.662
1:45.210