Massa Fastest in Practice 2 - Malaysia

Massa failed to match the time set by Ricardo Zonta in the morning session as temperatures rose towards 40 degrees Celsius but his lap of 1:35.608 was good enough to put him on top of the times for Sauber.

He finished 0.012 seconds clear of McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya, whose teammate Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a spin to finish fourth just behind Brazilian Toyota driver Zonta.

Ralf Schumacher finished fifth in the second Toyota while Australian Grand Prix winner Giancarlo Fisichella finished sixth fastest after opting not to go out in the first session to conserve his engine life.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, like Raikkonen, recovered from an early spin and was able to finish seventh fastest with Briton Jenson Button eighth in his BAR-Honda.

Fernando Alonso, who like his Renault teammate Fisichella failed to set a time in the morning running, finished ninth and David Coulthard completed the top ten for Red Bull Racing.

Massa made the early running in his Sauber and led Zonta and Klien after seven minutes while Tiago Monteiro spun his Jordan at turn 14 but was able to recover and return to the pits.

Not long later McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen spun at turn seven and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello then spun his Ferrari at turn 11 after 15 minutes but both were able to get back out later in the session after their cars were recovered.

With 20 minutes gone Button led the times with a lap of 1:35.992, almost two seconds slower than the best time set in the morning session by Zonta but good enough to put him 0.708 seconds ahead of second-placed Massa.

After setting an impressive third fastest time in the morning session Vitantonio Liuzzi spun his Red Bull Racing machine on 29 minutes in a repeat of his feat in the season-opening race in Australia and he was forced to abandon his car.

Massa returned to the top of the times and sat 0.384 seconds ahead of Button as the session headed into its final quarter with times still more than one-and-a-half seconds slower than those set in the morning session.

Mark Webber spent the session in the Williams garage and failed to complete a time.

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:35.608               19
 2.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:35.620  +    0.012   13
 3.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:35.677  +    0.069   30
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:35.719  +    0.111    6
 5.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:35.838  +    0.230   16
 6.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:35.841  +    0.233   16
 7.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:35.949  +    0.341    7
 8.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:35.992  +    0.384   19
 9.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:36.103  +    0.495   15
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:36.575  +    0.967   20
11.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:36.841  +    1.233   18
12.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:36.968  +    1.360   19
13.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:37.033  +    1.425   31
14.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:37.044  +    1.436   18
15.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:37.067  +    1.459   17
16.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:37.270  +    1.662   22
17.  Doornbos      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:37.878  +    2.270   23
18.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:38.121  +    2.513   19
19.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:38.855  +    3.247   21
20.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:39.349  +    3.741   11
21.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:39.755  +    4.147   21
22.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:40.940  +    5.332   19
23.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:41.156  +    5.548   16
24.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  No Time                 2

All timing unofficial