Lewis Hamilton managed to set the quickest time in practice one in Malaysia. The McLaren team narrowly missed out on a 1-2 in practice after Mercedes Nico Rosberg slipped between the two at the very end of the session.
The smaller teams got some early running in before the front runners joined – mainly focusing on longer, high-fuel runs.
Michael Schumacher managed fourth behind Button, just under +0.020s behind. That rounds of a McLaren and Mercedes top four.
The Renault of Robert Kubica briefly held P1 before the McLaren’s, but ended up P5 ahead of Mark Webber.
Adrian Sutil took P7 ahead of the Ferrari of Alonso who recorded a 1:35.959, +1.039s off the leading time. Teammate Massa was back in P11, behind Vettel and Buemi.
The Williams drivers took 17 and 18, Hulkenberg leading the veteran Barrichello.
Meanwhile, Fairuz Fauzy set a solid time of 1:40.121, over a second quicker than both HRT cars on his debut race weekend test for the Lotus team.
Times for Friday practice one:
| 01 | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:34.921 | 19 |
| 02 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:35.106 | 19 |
| 03 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:35.207 | 25 |
| 04 | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:35.225 | 14 |
| 05 | R. Kubica | Renault | 1:35.402 | 22 |
| 06 | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:35.479 | 22 |
| 07 | A. Sutil | Force India | 1:35.955 | 20 |
| 08 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:35.959 | 20 |
| 09 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:36.043 | 19 |
| 10 | S. Buemi | Toro Rosso | 1:36.100 | 20 |
| 11 | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:36.451 | 22 |
| 12 | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:36.503 | 28 |
| 13 | J. Alguersuari | Toro Rosso | 1:36.645 | 18 |
| 14 | V. Petrov | Renault | 1:36.712 | 9 |
| 15 | P. di Resta | Force India | 1:36.891 | 25 |
| 16 | P. de la Rosa | Sauber | 1:36.899 | 24 |
| 17 | N. Hulkenberg | Williams | 1:37.802 | 27 |
| 18 | R. Barrichello | Williams | 1:38.278 | 18 |
| 19 | J. Trulli | Lotus | 1:39.460 | 21 |
| 20 | T. Glock | Virgin | 1:39.755 | 17 |
| 21 | L. di Grassi | Virgin | 1:40.159 | 25 |
| 22 | F. Fauzy | Lotus | 1:40.721 | 19 |
| 23 | B. Senna | HRT | 1:41.832 | 27 |
| 24 | K. Chandhok | HRT | 1:41.966 | 24 |
All timing unofficial
