Kovalainen to sit out practice after coin toss

The loss of a coin throw means Heikki Kovalainen will sit out Friday morning practice ahead of this weekend’s Malaysian grand prix.

With Lotus’ locally-born test driver Fairuz Fauzy set to drive one of the green T127s on Friday, technical boss Mike Gascoyne proposed a coin toss to decide whether it was Kovalainen or his teammate Jarno Trulli who must give up their car.

"I picked tails," loser Kovalainen, 28, told Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

Italian Trulli will be relieved to have won the throw, after missing the start of Sunday’s Australian GP with a late hydraulics issue.

"We’ll work now to fix that for Malaysia and I’m looking forward to getting out there and seeing what we can do in Sepang," said the 35-year-old.