Sepang, FP1: Rosberg fastest as fire halts Magnussen’s progress

Formula One World Championship leader Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of opening practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix in a session that was red-flagged when Kevin Magnussen’s Renault caught fire in the pit lane.

Magnussen had just two installation laps on the board when returned to the garage with a suspected fuel leak. As his car was wheeled back into the car he was suddenly told to jump out as flames burst from the airbox behind his head.

The fire was quickly brought under control but fuel continued to pour from the car and Magnussen’s Renault repeatedly burst into flame until a fuel rig was attached and the remaining fuel was drained from it.

As a result of the problem and with the pit lane covered in extinguisher material the session was red-flagged for 15 minutes.

When the action finally resumed teams quickly set about testing the new track surface and the tyre compounds on offer, with Pirelli adding to its hard and medium compounds by bringing a soft compound specification to the circuit for the first time since 2011.

Across their opening runs there was little to separate Rosberg and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton but eventually Rosberg, using that soft tyre, extended his advantage to just under half a second. Hamilton, meanwhile, set his best time of the session on the medium tyre.

Rosberg’s session wasn’t entirtely clean, however, and the title leader momentarily lost control at Turn 11 which resulted in a trip across the gravel traps.

Third and fourth on the timesheets respectively were Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. The Ferrari drivers both set their quickest time of the session on soft tyres but were still left with a gap of 1.1s to Rosberg.

Close on the heels of the Ferrari pair was McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard clearly benefited from the upgraded power unit Honda brought to this race, getting to within two tenths of a second of Vettel’s time and the question now is whether his team decide to continue with the unit in the second practice session.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo took sixth spot on the timesheet ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen. Ricciardo set his best time of the session on the orange-banded soft tyre, while Verstappen’s lap of 1:36.973 came on medium tyres.

In the tight battle for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, Force India, who currently lead Williams by just a single point, drew first blood here with Nico Hulkenberg eighth, just under a tenth of a second ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez. The highest placed Williams was that of Valtteri Bottas who finished 12th. Team-mate Felipe Massa ended the session in P18.