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Kimi Räikkönen was quite content after the first day of the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang. However, the day began not without problems, when the Finn stranded on the track with no fuel after a small communication problem with the pit wall and the garage.

Up to his said problem Kimi completed a total of eight laps in the first free practice and set in 1:36.459 minutes the second fastest time behind his team mate Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was more than one second faster than Kimi with his time of 1:35.392, but he could complete 20 laps without problems, though.

Kimi then could make up the missed work from the first session in the second free practice. He completed a total of 36 laps with his Ferrari F2008 and finally he finished on the third place with a lap time of 1:35.428 minutes. His gap on Lewis Hamilton, who set in 1:35.055 minutes the fastest time, was 0.373 minutes. Kimi's team mate Felipe Massa finished the second free practice with a time of 1:35.206 minutes on the second place.

The day's technical programme, as usual for a Friday, centred on finding the best set up on the car and a comparison of the two types of tyre brought to the track by Bridgestone. Despite losing a bit of time in the morning session because Kimi's communicaton problem, the programme was completely with almost no technical problems.

"This morning I lost time because of a communication problem within the team, but we made up for it in the second session. The car seems to be going well and I am pleased with the work we have done. I worked mainly on the harder tyres, but I think that even with the softs, from what we have seen, we can be competitive. It is always difficult to say where we are compared to our rivals, but I think we can face the rest of the weekend with confidence."

2nd Free Practice:
 

Pos  Driver  Team  Laps  Time  Gap  1.  L. Hamilton McLaren 32  1:35.055    2.  F. Massa Ferrari 33  1:35.206  0.151  3.  K. Raikkonen Ferrari 36  1:35.428  0.373  4.  J. Button Honda 40  1:36.037  0.982  5.  S. Vettel Toro Rosso 35  1:36.474  1.419  6.  Jarno Trulli Toyota 38  1:36.493  1.438  7.  H. Kovalainen McLaren 30  1:36.512  1.457  8.  R. Kubica BMW Sauber 33  1:36.671  1.616  9.  G. Fisichella Force India 37  1:36.756  1.701  10.  K. Nakajima Williams 34  1:36.838  1.783  11.  R. Barrichello Honda 38  1:36.879  1.824  12.  N. Rosberg Williams 36  1:36.908  1.853  13.  N. Heidfeld BMW 35  1:37.106  2.051  14.  F. Alonso Renault 23  1:37.328  2.273  15.  N. Piquet Renault 42  1:37.331  2.276  16.  M. Webber Red Bull 37  1:37.346  2.291  17.  T. Glock Toyota 35  1:37.512  2.457  18.  A. Sutil Force India 35  1:37.614  2.559  19.  T. Sato Super Aguri 27  1:39.021  3.966  20.  A. Davidson Super Aguri 30  1:39.361  4.306  21.  S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1  No time    22.  D. Coulthard Red Bull 0

1st Free Practice
 

Pos  Driver  Team  Laps  Time  Gap  1.  F. Massa Ferrari 20  1:35.392    2.  K. Raikkonen Ferrari 8  1:36.459  1.067  3.  H. Kovalainen McLaren 21  1:36.556  1.164  4.  N. Rosberg Williams 23  1:36.578  1.186  5.  L. Hamilton McLaren 17  1:36.626  1.234  6.  F. Alonso Renault 18  1:37.022  1.630  7.  N. Piquet Renault 28  1:37.034  1.642  8.  R. Kubica BMW 9  1:37.218  1.826  9.  J. Button Honda 17  1:37.282  1.890  10.  J. Trulli Toyota 24  1:37.540  2.148  11.  N. Heidfeld BMW 17  1:37.649  2.257  12.  K. Nakajima Williams 18  1:37.649  2.257  13.  R. Barrichello Honda 20  1:37.776  2.384  14.  T. Glock Toyota 27  1:37.782  2.390  15.  S. Vettel Toro Rosso 26  1:38.219  2.827  16.  D. Coulthard Red Bull 7  1:38.232  2.840  17.  M. Webber Red Bull 12  1:38.707  3.315  18.  S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 25  1:38.798  3.406  19.  G. Fisichella Force India 21  1:38.846  3.654  20.  T. Sato Super Aguri 11  1:40.178  4.786  21.  A. Davidson Super Aguri 14  1:40.351  4.959  22.  A. Sutil Force India 5  1:41.269  5.877