Free practice 1: Ferraris fastest

The Ferraris left it late in the session before taking to the track at Sepang, but they were instantly on the pace. Schumacher's best lap of 1m38.626s is still three seconds off last year's pole, but he was almost 2.5s up on Nick Heidfeld, who put on a good show in front of the Petronas top brass to make it a Ferrari-powered 1-2-3.

It wasn't an entirely trouble-free session for the Scuderia though: Schuey spun but recovered at T15, while Barrchello had a bumpy ride across the gravel after messing up Turn 14. Enrique Bernoldi was a surprise fourth fastest for Arrows, although the Brazilian's session ended with his car parked on the grass after mechanical failure.

As usual the Williams' were the quickest cars on the straight, but Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were back in 10th and 11th respectively. However, McLaren's weekend got off to the worst possible start. David Coulthard's McLaren expired on track during his first flying. The Scot pulled onto the grass just after T11 with smoke pouring from the rear of his car. Later in the session a disgruntled looking Scot pushed his broken car down the pitlane after the track officials had towed it back. He'll be hoping that his McLaren mechanics will be able to fix in time for the second session, but already he's facing an uphill struggle to challenge the seemingly peerless Ferraris.

Local hero Alex Yoong had the crowd on their feet as he got the session underway in his Minardi, but it was his team-mate Mark Webber who proved the first real action when he took to the gravel on the exit of Turn 7.

Takuma Sato had a more fruitful session than he enjoyed in Melbourne and was sixth fastest, one place behind Jenson Button. Heinz-Harald Frentzen emphasised Arrows form with seventh, with Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella closely matched in eight and ninth.

For a full list of times click here.