2016 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX PRACTICE 1/2/3 *** SPOILERS***

Toasty Renault... caught fire three times after they thought they had it out
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Still burning...
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Hot, hot, hot....
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Clean up time
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whoops forgot this started early

 

times
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Hi just waking up LOL. SPEEDCORE is usually the resident practice/qualy/race thread orchestrator here, but a good job and thank you on getting this going since its a F1 Practice Day Sepang!! Hot already it seems!

 

Nico keeping the trend going. But its only practice. Im thinking LH will be alot closer/leading overall as the weekend moves on.

 

That is some very nice cold beverage weather I hope to visit KL someday soon. Had to cancel last years plans to visit.

 

session 2 is go

 

Sebastian fastest on the mediums with a 1:37.333

 

Be nice to see Fernando keep up the good work, how the heck was he 7th, have they pinched a spare red bull or something and painted it black (not much complicated writing to transpose, since the macs don't have any sponsors left!)

 

Lewis improves on his time to go top of the table with a 1:36.144

 

Lewis improves to a 1:35.956 on hards

 

Sebastian jumps to the top of the leaderboard with a 1:35.605

 

"We have to check the car, something is not correct" Kimi reports.

 

Mercs have plenty in hand, Ferrari seem to be able to be best of the rest at this point. Fernando is showing that Honda may yet become a force to be reckoned with next year

 

Unfortunately so.

Lewis fastest so far:-
S1 - 24.262
S2 - 32.036
S3 - 38.646

 

Ferrari best of the rest!

1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 34.944s
2. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 35.117s
3. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 35.605s
4. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 35.842s
5. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull-TAG 1m 36.037s
6. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 36.284s
7. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 36.296s
8. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG 1m 36.337s
9. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 36.390s
10. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 36.715s

 

Long run/race pace show a weakness for Mercedes - Why Mercedes needs to watch its back in Malaysia - F1 - Autosport Plus

--The general consensus suggested the circuit is smoother and definitely offering up more grip. Hamilton's session-topping laptime of 1m34.944s in FP2 marked the first time F1 cars have gone below 1m35s since 2011.

But, as McLaren's Jenson Button said, the surface was still "tricky' to read.

"It's very strange," he said. "You get a false sense of hope with the new asphalt - you feel like you have a lot of grip and then suddenly it's taken away from you.

"It doesn't feel normal, it feels like Sochi. It's tricky asphalt. We're the best guys in the world, and we normally feel when we're getting oversteer, but with this it just comes out of nowhere."

All meaning Mercedes couldn't afford to rest on its laurels in practice. It has the fastest car in F1, but the sensitive Pirelli tyres play a large role in defining competitiveness, and they have caught Mercedes out on occasion.

Hamilton, Rosberg, Verstappen, and Vettel all completed significant 10-lap runs on the soft compound, which they are all likely to start the race on if they qualify inside the top 10 as expected.

Mercedes' one-lap advantage on pure pace means it may be able to get through Q2 on a different compound - Hamilton's 1m35.956s lap on the hard tyre was fast enough to put him fifth in FP2, while Rosberg managed a 1m36.543s effort on the medium that was just about good enough to make the top 10.

Starting the race on the harder tyre could buy strategic advantage, but the risk of getting overtaken off the start line is much greater in that instance - as Rosberg found almost to his cost in China earlier this season.

And that's the real danger facing Mercedes here this weekend. If for some reason it cannot convert its single-lap pace advantage into superior track position on Sunday, it stands a very real chance of losing the race.--