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Fisi up to 9th whilst Sutil at bottom

Fisi leads Sutil
By Karl King March 21 2008
With only five days passed since the last grand prix, the cars were back in action for the free practice sessions in Sepang today. There was not much to write home about for either driver in the morning session, with Fisi struggling with handling issues, and Sutil not being able to play much of a part due to engine troubles.

Fisichella, who completed 21 laps in the morning session and set the 19th fastest time, explained, "this morning there was a lot of understeer and then oversteer - it was really inconsistent."

With more serious troubles on the other side of the garage, Sutil was dead last on the timesheets behind the Super Aguris due to only being able to complete five laps before he suffered an engine failure, leaving him stranded on track.

The Ferraris dominated FP1 with Massa leading Raikkonen and Kovalainen.

The team fared better in the afternoon session, though. Fisichella placed his VJM01 up in ninth place, although he feels it could have been even better, "I was doing my new tyre run Glock was going very slowly in the middle of the last corner so I lost three tenths. It wasn't acceptable, but thankfully it wasn't the qualifying session."

He added, "we made a big step forward and the balance was a lot better in the second session."

The Roman completed 37 laps with a lap 1.701s off the leading pace of Hamilton.

Sutil managed to set the 18th fastest time, although, in effect he was only faster than the Aguris due to Bourdais and Coulthard setting no time. The young German cites "problems with the new tyres" as the cause of his troubles in FP2.

He said, "I don't know if it was the car or the pressures, but we just can't get a time out of the softer tyres.

"We have to look at this and improve for tomorrow as I am not happy with today."

Chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne concluded, "Once again we proved we have a competitive car in that midfield pack and we just have to get everything right for tomorrow to make sure we can now get the best out of qualifying."

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