A change of gear proves expensive for Rubens Barrichello

The Brawn GP team were hit with some bad news this afternoon, when No2 driver Rubens Barrichello was given a five-place grid penalty after his gearbox was changed.

Despite not suffering any apparent problems in last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, in which the Brazillian finished second behind team-mate Jenson Button, the Brawn team installed a new gear-box this week — contravening a rule which dictates a gearbox must last four races.

Barrichello was sixth fastest in this afternoon's practice session and fourth fastest in the morning, while Button lapped seventh and third quickest respectively.

"My biggest problem was we are locking the tyres and brakes very easily, so we need to have a good look at this," said Button. "We are not quite there yet but we are going in the right direction."

Quickest in practice this afternoon was Kimi Raikkonen (below), who led a Ferrari one-two as the team put their Melbourne misery behind them.
The Finn, who won at Sepang last year, notched up a quickest lap of 1min 35.707sec, just ahead of Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa in 1:35.832.

Neither scored a point in the Australian season‑opener as Ferrari suffered their worst start to a campaign since 1992.

"We had felt the situation here could be different to Melbourne but it is still too early to say where we are, up against the opposition," said Raikkonen. "What we can be sure of is when the car runs trouble-free we are competitive."

German Nico Rosberg and Williams team-mate Kazuki Nakajima of Japan were first and second in the morning but in the later, faster session were fourth and eighth respectively.