Massa needs more time

For rookie Felipe Massa getting track time at unfamiliar circuits is essential, especially at a Sepang, where the teams don't ordinarily test. So the last thing he needed was to lose half the session after taking to the gravel on the entrance to Turn 11

"I think it was still quite dirty today because a lot of people spun," he said. "Unfortunately I was one of them. I saw (Enrique) Bernoldi go off, and then suddenly I lost the back end of my car. I don't know if there was anything on the surface, but it snapped out of line pretty quickly."

At one stage the Brazilian had been on the fringe of the top 10, but as the others improved he slipped down the order and finished back in 21st place. In contrast team-mate Nick Heidfeld had a much better time of things; setting the third quickest time in first free practice and ending up 10th in the second.

"Things went quite well for me right from the start of the morning session," admitted Heidfeld. "We made some changes to improve the balance of the car, but I wanted to do a longer run at the end and was frustrated because there were so many yellow flags."

This weekend the Saubers are running with the Malaysian flag on their bargeboards, so the team will be especially keen to impress tomorrow in order to give them a chance of taking their first points of the season on Sunday.