Heidfeld not confirming same problem for Petrov

Nick Heidfeld said he did not know the details of the problems that affected both Renault drivers in initial practice at Sepang.

The German had to return to the pits with a damaged tyre and floor after an apparent brake locking problem.

And his teammate Vitaly Petrov had a dramatic skip into the gravel following a brake, wheel or suspension failure aboard the sister R31.

Jerome d’Ambrosio then had a similar incident at the wheel of his Virgin.

"Whether Vitaly and I had the same problem, I don’t know," Heidfeld told German broadcaster Sky.

"We have a few ideas already of course but we haven’t had anything like this in testing so we’re a bit surprised," he added.

The 33-year-old had a difficult season opener in Australia while Petrov drove to the podium, but Heidfeld is confident of a better performance in Malaysia.

"It was a difficult weekend," he confirmed. "It would have been nice to race immediately the following weekend, but I used the time to train and have a positive attitude going into this weekend."