The Ferraris of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher headed the warm-up times in Sepang this morning, with the McLaren of David Coulthard, the two Renaults and both Williams among the fastest.  The DHL Jordan Hondas were down in 13th and 15th places, though both drivers were happy with their performance given that the team was concentrating on checking 1 versus 2-stop stategy options.

The hot conditions which greeted the teams this morning mean that this afternoon's Malaysian Grand Prix is going to be long, hot, and very arduous for both men and machines.  Tyre wear is going to be critical, driver fitness will be tested to the extreme and the cars face a stiff challenge in such hot conditions.  Ambient temperatures are set to climb towards 40 degrees C, with track temperature of 45 degrees and humidity hovering around 70%.

Once again warm-up brought a trouble free run from the two Jordan Hondas, Takuma Sato setting a best time of 1.40.783 to go 13th quickest, although his best combined sector times would have placed him sixth.

"Today was a lot better than yesterday," said Taku,"as I have got much more to grips with sector three which I was struggling with a bit until now.  I really enjoyed the warm-up and am looking forward to the race."

Team mate Giancarlo Fisichella was 15th  on 1.41.466, running a high fuel load.

"It was difficult out there this morning," he said.  "I had some trouble with the rear end of the car which was rather twitchy - we have to look into why that was happening.  The track was very slippery too so, all in all, it was not an easy warm-up.  But I am nonetheless optimistic for the race."