Webber fastest in Red Bull, Force India off the mark

Sepang (Malaysia): Red Bull's Mark Webber continued to set the pace while Force India drivers failed to finish among the 10 fastest at the Friday practice of the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix.

Webber recorded the fastest time in the morning and the afternoon sessions to stake his claim for the pole position in the qualifying Saturday. He clocked 1:37.651 and 1:36.876 during the day.

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Webber's teammate and reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel (1:41.627 and 1:37.090) started the day at the 17th position but improved in the afternoon to finish fourth at the humid Sepang International Circuit.

McLaren was not far behind as Jenson Button (1:40.927 and 1:36.881) took the fastest times in the first two sectors on a lap that left him just 0.005 adrift of Webber in the second session.

Vijay Mallya-owned Force India had a tough time on the track. Adrian Sutil (1:40.734 and 1:39.809) came out on occasions to record the 11th and the 17th fastest times. Rookie driver Paul di Riesta (1:39.809) was 16th fastest in the afternoon.

"We had a disappointing day. I went out on the first lap of the morning session and straight away we had some KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) issues, which affected the car's balance and power for the rest of the running," said Sutil.

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"In the afternoon, the guys fixed this problem, but we then had a downshift issue, which we don't seem to know exactly what it is, and the car was difficult to drive. So we need to understand this problem as it upsets the car, and with reliability and pace not there at the moment, I am a little concerned. But we shall discuss these tonight and work on them for tomorrow," he added.

India's Narain Karthikeyan (1:43.197) had a improved performance in the Hispania car and was faster than his teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi (1:43.991).

The race is scheduled for Sunday and is the second of the season.