From a seemingly disappointing debut to an in-form race winner, the first day back at Sepang produced many winners and losers. Here are our picks… Loser – Mercedes (7th and 8th) From absolutely dominating the entire weekend in Baku to being the fourth fastest team after Friday’s practice at Sepang, this looks on the surface like a sudden fall from grace for Mercedes, especially with the significant upgrade package it has brought here, which is estimated to be worth at least 0.3 seconds per lap. So what’s going on? “Everything seems to be working as expected,” said Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord. “The drivers have said they can feel the difference in the high-speed corners, and then the competitive landscape here on a circuit with a lot more medium and high-speed content, I think it’s more like a picture of Hungary than maybe last weekend in Baku. “We just have to make fine adjustments, particularly on the single lap. They [the drivers] said the long run felt good, but on the single lap Kimi was certainly talking about too much understeer, and it’s just not over yet for either of us on that lap, there’s a little bit of a lock here or it goes too far, so hopefully we can fix all that tomorrow in qualifying.” the car set up in the right window” and “that has nothing to do with the updates, we just need to do a bit of overnight work to try and improve tire degradation.” Russell’s long run wasn’t as good, but Antonelli’s was much better, so Mercedes are probably in better shape than they look – and Russell feels they are – at the moment, but there’s no doubt that this looks like a much tougher circuit than Baku for the car, regardless of the update. – Ben Anderson Winner: Charles Leclerc (1st) First place and a three-tenths lead over his teammate in qualifying drills, combined with a more than healthy long run, means there’s a lot to like about Leclerc’s Friday Incidentally, this was his second F1 Friday on track, the first including FP1 only in 2017 with Sauber (he was 16th in a wet session, slightly faster than full-time teammate Pascal. Wehrlein). How time passes. Leclerc obviously “had to relearn the track” after all these years, but he certainly showed well on the timing screens and is encouraged by the state of this weekend so far, whether it will really be dominated by the grades, “normally we have a good race car,” he noted, however, are wary of the role that anticipation of track grip will play in the coming sessions. “For us, but I think for everyone,” said Vasseur. – Valentin Khorounzhiy Winner – Aston Martin (15th and 18th) The medium and high speed corners of Sepang seem to naturally suit the Aston Martin B-spec much better than the long straights and low speed of Baku, so this was comfortably the team’s best Friday of the season so far in terms of pace and result, with Fernando Alonso 15th, already placed between the two. half a second from the Audis. Alonso was in no mood to talk after FP2 – he never is these days and seems to enjoy making it clear how pointless he feels his post-session media engagements are by deliberately sabotaging them – but according to his old friend (and team representative) Pedro de la Rosa, it was a “pretty decent day.” “There’s still work to do on Lance’s car. He was definitely happier in the second session, but not enough really. “And other than that, everything was as expected. Obviously the track is a little slipperier than expected. The asphalt is very bumpy and opens up in some curves. But it’s the same for everyone.” – BALoser: Williams (17th and 20th) If Baku was the best-case circuit for the improved Williams to debut, Sepang could be the worst-case scenario. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were already prepared for a much tougher weekend here, after Sainz’s Q3 and points heroics in Baku, but Friday did little to allay those fears. Williams was the 10th fastest car by a single lap, four and a half tenths behind Aston Martin, which was far behind in Baku “We have extremely limited balance. [so] I think everyone is struggling, there is no one who has a good balance, but, especially us,” Albon said. “Medium and high speed [corners] I feel maybe better than I expected and at low speed. [corners] feel worse. “We tried to make some changes for FP2 to improve the low speed, we did, but then we lost the mid-high speed balance. [we’re] winning and losing.” Chief track engineer Paul Williams said the team knew Sepang would “expand our package” but that it’s important to help “really understand where those weaknesses are so we don’t carry them over to next year’s car.” – JS Winner: McLaren (3rd and 6th) McLaren didn’t perform strongly in the opening session, surprised by “less grip than we expected,” according to McLaren racing director Randy Singh. But the correction was substantial because of the late, drawing the attention of Russell, who pointed to the MCL40 as the most notable pace of the race. Which he has presumably seen to make him say that it is a trio of Lando Norris 1m44.7-8s laps on softs at the end of the stint, a pace that did not seem to be available for either Mercedes or Ferrari, with the caveat that no one has yet optimized their stint approaches or their settings or anything like that. Oscar Piastri is also there or close to it, but the specific challenge of this end. of the week seems suitable to get the best out of Norris in particular as it is. – VKWinner: Red Bull (2nd and 4th) First in FP1 (Max Verstappen), second in FP2 (Isack Hadjar) and a strong pace in long runs, the first signs are that Mercedes’ challenging pace of Red Bull in Baku could be followed here in Sepang Although George Russell did not do a medium long run and Verstappen did not do a smooth long run, really alone. We can compare Verstappen and Antonelli. In five laps (the length of Antonelli’s average stint), Verstappen’s average was three and a half tenths faster. That’s without knowing the race plans or fuel loads, but perhaps even more encouraging was Verstappen’s willingness to indulge in some positivity on an F1 Friday. “It was a long time ago, so there are no guarantees, but at least we had a positive start to the weekend,” said – Jack Benyon. Loser: Sergio Pérez (21st) Only Franco Colapinto, who faces a 15-place penalty on the grid and with a very different program, was slower than Sergio Pérez’s Cadillac on Friday in Sepang. “We tried something very radical on our part to try to calm the degradation, but basically we went south and we just have to recover and try to find a better compromise,” was Pérez’s summary after FP2. His teammate Valtteri Bottas was back. in form after his nightmare race in Baku, more than seven tenths ahead of Perez. Cadillac racing director Marc Hynes said it was “good to see Valtteri back on form and with Checo we tried some direction of development that maybe wasn’t the way to go.” Franco Colapinto ruined Alpine’s best race car of the year so far by eliminating him and his teammate, the result of which both opened up two places in the top 10 but also compacted the field under the safety car. Before Baku, you have to return to Hungary for a race in which the Racing Bulls were ahead. That includes a period with a substitute driver in place of Liam Lawson, but still, it has not been the strongest period in terms of pace so far. Malaysia, with Lawson ahead of Gasly in FP2. Gasly still looks very strong and Colapinto underwent set-up experiments that anchored him in qualifying. But strong signs, and there is no third consecutive crash for Arvid Lindblad in FP2… – JBWinner: Friday’s practice sessions at Sepang may not have produced the predicted rain, but they did give plenty of signs that we are in for an exciting first race at Sepang in nine years. That should produce plenty. strategic variation on Sunday, and it looks difficult to get a single lap here with several drivers, such as Mercedes pair Russell and Antonelli, making mistakes in their qualifying simulations in FP2 It may just be a one-time return, but Sepang is already showing why the news of their unexpected return was so welcomed -JS.
