The Spaniard was again immaculate in his performance at the wheel of a Renault claiming his second successive provisional pole position with a time of 1:29.848.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli – provisionally second in Malaysia – once again lined up behind his former team-mate after recording another impressive result of 1:29.993,
including the fastest final sector time of the session.

Third was the resurgent Michael Schumacher who recorded a 1:30.237 at the wheel of his all-new Ferrari F2005.

Overall the session was tightly contested with the top ten men covered by just over a second.

Notable absentees from the top half of the timesheet were BAR, who paid a double price for their Malaysian failures.

Running early in the session, both Takuma Sato and Jenson Button struggled for grip finishing down in 12th and 13th respectively.

By the end of the session there was a lot more traction explaining why the Sepang top-three finished in first, second and fourth.

Going against the grain of early lap struggles were Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) and Mark Webber (Williams).

The pair – who retired after a clash midway through the Malaysian event – two of the first men on the road and still managed to record the fifth and sixth fastest times.

Both Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) and Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber) will be in dark moods on Saturday afternoon.

Schumacher ran wide through the opening turn and could never recover, finishing 11th.

Villeneuve was on the way to complete a solid lap before a similar mistake saw him struggle to keep the car on track through the final turn and finish the session 16th. Their misery was compounded by the performance of their respective team-mates who were both in top form.

Rubens Barrichello’s dismal weekend didn’t get any better on Saturday afternoon. The Brazilian – who had not been on track since Friday’s first session of practice due to gearbox – struggled from the outset with a lock-up into Sakhir’s first turn. Barrichello eventually finished in 15th position, two seconds off the pace.

Pedro de la Rosa will have won himself new fans after an impressive qualifying run. The Spaniard, who was drafted to replace the injured Juan Pablo Montoya at McLaren, finished just over a tenth off the pace of his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in ninth.