Friday 21 March at 09:32 : Despite topping the morning time sheets, Ferrari's Melbourne problems seemed to carry over into Malaysia, as free practice kicked off at the Sepang circuit.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil's Maranello built V8 engine appeared to fail, and reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen had to park his red car in a run-off area after losing drive.

It is understood that the Finn's problem is not an engine failure.

His teammate Felipe Massa told reporters in Malaysia that Ferrari's engine failures in Melbourne had been traced to broken valves.

"Speaking to the engineers it looks like we are very confident that we have solved the problem," the Brazilian said.

Meanwhile, David Coulthard had a big accident in opening Friday practice, ripping both front wheels off his Red Bull after running wide at the high speed chicane.

The crash brought out the red flags.

Red Bull's reliability woes also continued, with Mark Webber abandoning his RB4 after an apparent fiery Renault engine failure.

Toro Rosso ace Sebastian Vettel seemed to suffer a repeat of Webber's Albert Park problem, when the front right corner heaved black dust under braking before pitching him into the gravel.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, fifth quickest, did not return to the track after his McLaren coasted at low speed into the pits.